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Johannesburg - While police will be on high alert to prevent an illegal drive-slow protest against e-tolling in Gauteng, more churches have come out against the project.
Cosatu was still contemplating by late Thursday afternoon whether to go ahead with a drive-slow protest against the e-tolling of Gauteng freeways.
"We are still trying to get a decision on whether it will go ahead legally," spokesperson Patrick Craven said in Johannesburg.
"We are just waiting for a decision."
The Congress of SA Trade Unions had failed to get permission for the drive-slow planned for Friday.
"Authorisation has not been given," said Johannesburg metro police chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.
Permission was not granted because at Cosatu's previous motorcade, protesters had stopped and walked on the freeway, which is in contravention of the National Road Traffic Act.
All law enforcement agencies would be on standby to ensure the protest did not go ahead on Friday, said Minnaar.
Earlier this week, the union's Gauteng secretary Dumisani Dakile said it would embark on a go-slow drive to bring the province's highways to a standstill against the planned e-tolling in the province.
The planned motorcade was to be held on the M1 north, N1 south, N12, and M2 north highways in Johannesburg.
Churches speak out
Meanwhile, more churches have come out against the e-tolling of Gauteng's highways and the impact it will have on members and religious activities.
The Dutch Reformed Church said on Thursday it was extremely concerned about the cost of these tolls.
Prof Nelus Niemandt, the chair of the Dutch Reformed Church general synod, welcomed the Catholic Church's research into e-tolling.
"We support it. E-tolling poses a moral, ethical dilemma. There has been a huge investment in capital expenditure and now they have to e-toll just to pay for that."
Niemandt said the matter would be raised at the next church committee meeting in July.
He said it would consider the position taken by the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) to denounce the buying of e-tags.
Judicial inquiry?
"We also support the SACBC on the call for a judicial inquiry. We call on a proper inquiry wholeheartedly."
Darren Sevitz, CEO of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues, said e-tolling would have a practical impact on the organisation and consumers of kosher products.
"Kosher certification is a major part of our business, which requires a physical inspection of food processing plants around the country," Sevitz said.
"At some point we have got to send inspectors in their cars to make sure manufacturers are complying with what is on their kosher certificate. We are concerned that travel costs will increase significantly... because we spend thousands of hours and tens and hundreds of thousands of kilometres on the road."
Sevitz said they had not bought e-tags yet and had made no decision in that regard.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa (ELCSA) said it always considered the socio-economic problems facing its members.
ELCSA general secretary Rev Bheki Mathe said the church would discuss its stance on e-tolling and alternative solutions at a bi-annual church council meeting on Sunday.
Economic impact
The main concern was the economic impact on poorer people.
"Simple people who don't even get good or fair salaries will be highly affected, because e-tolls come with their own challenges, such as increases of petrol, which will affect bus or taxi fares," he said.
He said church members would feel the pinch in their pockets because they had to travel from outside the province, and even the country, to church meetings.
Central Methodist Church Bishop Paul Verryn agreed on Wednesday that the proposed e-tolling system would adversely affect already economically struggling South Africans.
He would propose a resolution for the Methodist Church to support the Catholic Church in denouncing e-tolling.
"I will be proposing at our synod to be held this week in Ithuseng, Rustenburg, that the church should move and support the Catholic Church in opposing the system.
"For me the difficulty is that this is a system which taxes even the poorest of the poor. People trying to make ends meet would be affected by the toll," said Verryn.
No stance
The Apostolic Faith Mission of SA had not yet considered a stance on e-tolling.
"All I can say at this stage is that we would allow our members to act according to their own conscience and conviction. We are not prescribing or giving specific direction regarding it," the mission's president Isak Burger said.
The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference's justice and peace department said on Monday it supported Outa in its case against e-tolling, to be heard by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in September.
"We... call for the immediate suspension of the GFIP [Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project] e-tolling project and a full-access review of it by an appropriate forum (the Public Protector, the Auditor General or a judicial inquiry)," it said in a statement.
The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) on Tuesday applauded the Catholic Church's stance against the e-tolling of Gauteng highways.
"This denouncement of e-tolling by the church was clearly conducted after significant research and an introspective assessment of the pros and cons of e-tolling," Outa chairperson Wayne Duvenage said in statement.
Count down
In April, the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) said it would begin e-tolling on Gauteng roads within two months.
In April last year, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria granted Outa an interdict approving a full judicial review before electronic tolling could be implemented.
The interdict prevented Sanral from levying or collecting e-tolls pending the outcome of a review.
Sanral and the National Treasury appealed the court order. In September, the Constitutional Court set aside the interim order.
In December, the High Court in Pretoria dismissed Outa's application to scrap e-tolling.
The court granted Outa leave on January 25 to take the matter to the SCA in Bloemfontein.
