Cosatu mobilising for protest against e-tolls, calls on motorists to boycott system

One of the governing party’s alliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in Gauteng, has said it would mobilise its members, non-governmental organisations, and business sympathetic to its call to scrap the e-tolls in the province by closing all the toll roads in Gauteng.

“We further call all motorists in Gauteng to continue to boycott paying e-toll accounts, including the 30% that is currently paying,” reads a statement issued by the trade union on Tuesday.

Cosatu said its call to protest e-tolls comes after the trade union was taken aback by the latest pronouncement by ANC national spokesperson, Pule Mabe, who said that people of Gauteng must carry the debt of the e-tolling system.

“We are even shocked by his myopic comparison of the e-tolls system to the cellphone pay-as-you-go system. Mabe should know by now that the ANC led government is not a private company and it is duty-bound to provide services to the people, including quality roads.”

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula had promised the trade union that a process to determine a solution would be set in motion, Cosatu said, adding that it was astounding that the governing party’s headquarters, Luthuli House, was, through Mabe, “already telling us the outcomes of the process that is yet to start”.

“This is a sign of arrogance and it also shows that some of the people entrusted with leadership positions are out of touch with reality.”

The trade union in the province reiterated its position that the building of roads was the responsibility of government and that the people of Gauteng contributes towards this through tax and fuel levies.

“The ANC should also appreciate that the people of Gauteng voted them in power on the 8th of May 2019 with the understanding that e-tolls will be scrapped. The latest statement is a slap in the face for all those who were promised that the solution will be found that does not include punishing motorists in this province.

“This political zigzagging and policy flip-flopping are the reasons the ANC has lost 12% of the electoral support over the last decade in the province.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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