Pretoria - Motorists and commuters spent the majority of the morning looking for alternative routes as highways and main arterial roads were blocked by taxis due to the National Taxi Alliance (NTA) protest.
Busy highways such as the R80 Mabopane Highway and the R21 which see heavy amounts of traffic during morning peak hours were backed up and other intersections with Nelson Mandela Drive in the CBD were also backed up. Areas in Midrand have also been affected.
Learners that are currently busy with exams were also affected prompting the department of Education to allow learners to come an hour later to sit for exams due to the transport issue that caused most not to get transport to get to work or school on time.
Members of the NTA will march to the Department of Transport and the Union Buildings over Covid-19 relief funds that were promised but never paid.
Speaking to Pretoria News National Taxi Alliance spokesperson Theo Malele said the protest followed grievances from their members and them giving Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula an ultimatum to respond to written grievances contained in the letters they had written in August and September to the minister.
Malele said he was given until the end of October to respond to the grievances but he has not.
He said the NTA was aggrieved by the minister's reluctance in affording them a right enshrined in chapter two section 18 of the bill of rights.
“We are also concerned about the failure to release the Covid-19 relief fund promised by both the minister and the state president, for the benefit of the deserving taxi drivers and taxi operators.”
He said as a result they were embarking on a peaceful protest march to deliver their grievances, contained in two memorandum of grievances to the minister of transport and the president.
Pretoria News