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Cosatu resumes e-tolls protest

Johannesburg - The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) will resume its campaign against e-tolling on Tuesday, with a drive-slow in Pretoria.

The protest drive would start next to the McDonald's opposite the Garden Court in End Street in Hatfield at 08:00, said Cosatu provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile.

He said it would proceed east on the N4, south on the N1, then onto the R21 towards the airport, taking the off-ramp at Nelmapius road.

It would re-join the R21 north to Pretoria and end at Fountains Valley in Eufees Road.

"The go-slow is to raise public awareness of the campaign to scrap the e-tolling system in the Province of Gauteng," he said.

After the drive slow, Cosatu will proceed to march to the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital to wish former president Nelson Mandela a speedy recovery, the SABC reported on Monday. 

Transport Minister Ben Martins hinted on Monday that further cuts to e-tariffs on the Gauteng toll road programme might be on the cards.

Tolling was supposed to begin in April 2011, but at least three proposed start dates have failed to materialise. Tariffs have been cut twice since legal battles about the issue started.

Martins said his department is trying to find ways of reducing the effect of tolling.

A lower tariff may be regarded as a final offer of compromise from the state to get the bill approved.

In April, the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) said it would begin e-tolling on Gauteng's roads within two months.

The previous April, the North High Court in Pretoria granted the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) an interdict approving a full judicial review before electronic tolling could be put into effect.

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, and in December, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria dismissed Outa's application to scrap e-tolling.

On January 25, the court granted Outa leave to take the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The appeal is expected to be heard in September.


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