Cosatu wants e-toll feedback by Monday

Protesters head down President Street towards Mary Fitzgerald Square in Johannesburg on Friday ahead of a march to show their rejection of plans for tolled roads in Gauteng. Photo: Barry McCallum, IOL

Protesters head down President Street towards Mary Fitzgerald Square in Johannesburg on Friday ahead of a march to show their rejection of plans for tolled roads in Gauteng. Photo: Barry McCallum, IOL

Published Nov 30, 2012

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Pretoria - Cosatu will occupy “all the streets of Gauteng” on December 6 if it does not receive “positive” feedback on the anti-tolling memorandum by Monday.

“This action for today is just a warm up,” Congress of SA Trade Unions provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile said in Pretoria on Friday.

“We must brace ourselves for a series of actions. We want a response by Monday 5pm... If they are not going to respond positively, we are going to occupy all the streets on December 6.”

Around midday, marchers in Pretoria made their first stop at the National Treasury.

Policemen blocked the entrance on Madiba Street while the crowd sang and danced as it waited to deliver a memorandum of grievances to the department.

About 20 minutes later, the document was handed over.

Several policemen, some in vehicles and others on bicycles, kept an eye on the situation.

The High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday reserved judgment on the future of the e-tolling system, following a challenge by the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance.

Dakile said the people would not accept the roll-out of the e-tolling project on roads between Johannesburg and Pretoria.

“The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The public transport in this country is a mess.”

Poor people paid a large part of their salaries to transport, said Dakile.

“This e-tolls is part of privatisation of our own roads. This system will benefit the elite in South Africa.”

He said the next generation would be indebted by the tolling system.

“Voetsak e-tolls, voetsak,” he shouted. - Sapa

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