Cosatu gains support for toll protests

The SA Council of Churches and the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC) would lend their active support to Cosatu, the union's Gauteng secretary Dumisani Dakile told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday (22 May).

"We will be embarking on a series of protests and demonstrations to highlight to the state and to government that this system is unacceptable," he said.

He said Cosatu and its partners would embark on a go-slow drive, and a march to bring the province's highways to a standstill.

The first protest would be in Johannesburg on 24 May and the second in Ekurhuleni on 31 May, with a final provincial "stay-away" and march on 10 June.

Cosatu would also be joined by the Congress of SA Students; the SA Students Congress; the SA National Civic Organisation; the United Association of Taxis Forum; the Treatment Action Campaign; the National Association of National School Governing Bodies; the National Taxi Forum and Bikers Against E-tolls.

Dakile said prayer services would be held across the province in the coming weeks.

"Jesus would lead the protest"

"The church is quite clear and it is our view that even if Jesus Christ was alive today, he would be leading this protest [against e-tolls]," he said.

Father Michael Deeb, of the SACBC, agreed with Dakile.

"If we look at what my comrade here said, what Jesus did in his own life was that he did not accept any injustice or any forms of exploitation that were taking place," he said.

Shaun Pfister, from Bikers Against E-tolls, said it did not want e-tolls in any province.

"With the planning, the manipulation and the way it has been implemented, the public on the whole has not been consulted," Pfister said.

He apologised to motorists who would be inconvenienced by the protests.

"We are not doing this for bikers. We are doing it for everyone who uses our national roads," he said.

Pfister and other members of his organisation wore badges on their leather jackets reading: "e-toll can suck my toll-e" [tollie is Afrikaans slang for penis].

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge