More than 2000 motorcyclists and 2500 cars took part in the e-tolling protest on 25 January.
Participants assembled at the Portuguese Hall on Wemmerpan Road in Regent’s Park at 7am to voice their grievances on the new e-tolling system.
“Burn, e-toll, burn!” shouted protesters, while thousands of e-toll invoices were set alight.
Shaun Pfister, Bikers Against Tolls co-founder, stated the protests will happen once a month until the system is scrapped. “We refuse to pay e-tolls,” Pfister said in front of hundreds of motorcyclists and motorists. “We’ve already paid for the roads through exorbitant fuel levies, now they expect us to simply handover our hard-earned money to pay-off offshore investors in Austria [referring to Kaapse TraffiCom, to whom Sanral outsourced the construction of the e-tolling system]? We refuse.”
Bikers Against Tolls were joined by Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance’s (Outa) Wayne Duvenhage and Justice Project South Africa’s Howard Dembovsky.
“There are enough people here who see through the injustice, the irrationality and the total rip-off that is the e-tolling system,” said Duvenhage.
Dembovsky agreed with the Outa chairperson and continued to state that he will take the matter even further. “My attorneys will be issuing a watching brief on the National Prosecuting Authority to have me prosecuted as the first e-toll objector in the High Courts,” he said, as the crowds erupted in cheer and support of the cause.
Thereafter all supporters moved in convoy towards the Comarro on-ramp on the N12, making their way toward the Buccleuch interchange and took the N3 back to Alberton.
Johannesburg was not the only place where e-toll protests occurred: protests took place in Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein and King William’s Town.
Details: www.outa.co.za, www.jp-sa.org
