The taxi industry in Ekurhuleni has given the City notice that its members will be embarking on a march tomorrow, March 20.
Due to this anticipated protest, which will take place throughout Ekurhuleni, the City would like to inform the public that its bus services will be suspended as a precautionary measure for the day – following a threat of violence.
Therefore, commuters are encouraged to seek alternative modes of transport for tomorrow, Tuesday, March 20.
The City apologises for the inconvenience caused.
The bus service will be fully operational from Thursday, March 22.
Commuters will be compensated with a free ride for a lost day.
Deployment will start tonight, March 19, involving SAPS, EMPD, GTP & JMPD.
JMPD will have units from N3 Greenstone up to Geldenhuis and N12 to Comaro and M2 Cleveland/ Geldenhuis interchange.
The Ekurhuleni Management Council (MANCO) held a meeting on March 15 at the Kempton park civic center to deliberate on the planning of the protest march on March 20.
The purpose of the march is about the grievances of the ERTC against the EMM for the withdrawal of funding the KTVR operations and the R800 million which were intended to buy new KTVR busses.
The logistics of the protest march are the following:
1. All members of MANCO who are the executives of the taxi associations will converge at the ERTC offices in Pomona from 9pm to midnight.
2. Taxi drivers and owners will converge at Esibayeni in Kempton Park and will proceed to next to the ERTC offices around 2am on March 20 to meet with MANCO members.
3. The plan is block the R21/R24 highway, both directions leading to O R Tambourine Airport (ORTIA). The march is meant to disrupt the traffic flow into and out of ORTIA.
4. Trucks will be hijacked, keys confiscated and truck drivers will then be driven out of the area by assigned taxis. These trucks will be used to close off the highway.
5. The meeting undertook not to disclose the points/ on/ off ramps where the highway will be blocked.
6. There are further plans to block the railway lines going to Kempton Park. Points to be blocked were also not disclosed in this regard.
7. The protest will proceed to Germiston where other associations operating from the eastern and southern parts of Ekurhuleni will be met with their counterpart in the southern part of Ekurhuleni.
8. The entire protest will proceed to the Mayoral Chambers in Germiston to hand over a memorandum of their grievance. This march was approved by the JOC.
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