The Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) is considering taking a magistrate’s court decision to halt their plans to protest e-tolling in Johannesburg today to the High Court.
“This is one of our options, because the decision is unconstitutional. We are looking at different options. One of the other options is to carry on [with the protest], but we are still discussing this,” Times Live quoted Dumisani Dakile, COSATU’s Gauteng provincial secretary, as saying.
The Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court last night rejected COSATU’s highway motorcade protest application. COSATU approached the court following the Johannesburg Metro police rejection of the union’s request for permission.
Patrick Craven, COSATU spokesperson, said the union plans to go ahead with the protest despite the ruling, but Phutas Tseki, COSATU’s Gauteng provincial chairperson, said today the union would assess the court’s ruling.
However, SAfm News announced through Twitter the first phase of the protest had been called off:
Cosatu officially calls off today’s first phase of protest against e-tolls in Joburg.#sabcnews
— SAfm news(@SAfmnews) May 24, 2013
Another report by News24 said a group of people outside COSATU’s Johannesburg head office began their protest march down an adjacent street while waiting for officials’ feedback. Provincial traffic officials, the South African Police Service and the Johannesburg metro police were reportedly present.
