The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is planning a drive-slow against Gauteng province’s controversial highway electronic tolling (e-toll) system on Friday.

Speaking at a media briefing at Cosatu House in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Dumisani Dakile, who is Cosatu’s Gauteng provincial secretary, told reporters that the first of such drive-slows is planned to take place on Friday along the province’s M1, N1, N12 and M2 for the whole day.

Cosatu further plans to conduct the drive slow along Gauteng’s N3, R24 and R21 routes, which are situated around Johannesburg.

Dakile said Cosatu is also planning a “massive march” in the form of a stayaway on November 14 but that the union has yet to get permission from police.

“We are continuing to call on members of the public not to buy e-tags,” said Dakile, referring to the devices that track drivers’ e-toll usage.

“We must ensure that the system is rendered unworkable,” he added.

Cosatu’s call to protest the electronic tolling system comes as ITWeb.co.za has reported that there are just two days left for the public to submit comments on the Gauteng e-toll tariffs gazetted by the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) last month.

South African President Jacob Zuma signed into law the ‘Transport and Related Matters Amendment Bill’ or e-toll bill on 21 September, which means that motorists using Gauteng highways could be paying e-tolls by year-end.

The South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) took out a R20 billion loan to finance the ‘Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project’.

To pay back the debt, Sanral has adopted the e-toll system to charge road users for driving along the province’s highways.