Cosatu to shut down the cities

Police will be on high alert for the Cosatu strike tomorrow, which is expected to shut down big cities across the country.

The trade union federation wants labour brokers - whose activities it refers to as the worst form of human trafficking - to be banned.

And it wants e-tolling on Gauteng freeways to be scrapped.

Traffic congestion is expected along major routes because of the 32 marches to be staged nationwide.

In Gauteng, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi will lead marchers from the Library Gardens in central Johannesburg to Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane's office, the Chamber of Mines and the offices of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA.

Dumisani Dakile, Cosatu's Gauteng secretary, said about 100000 people were expected to join the march.

There will be four marches in Western Cape. Cosatu's Western Cape secretary, Tony Ehrenreich, said in Cape Town that he expected 25000 people to march from Keisersgracht to parliament.

In KwaZulu-Natal, three marches have been organised. Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini will lead strikers from Inkosi Dinuzulu Square to Durban City Hall.

Provincial secretary Zet Luzipho said he expected up to 25000 people to join the strike in Durban.

National police spokesman Colonel Vish Naidoo said police would be on the lookout for strikers who vandalised property or intimidated non-striking workers.

Yesterday, the SA Students' Congress called on pupils to join the marches.

Though Cosatu has received overwhelming support from its other affiliates, it has been slammed by business, including the Federation of Unions of SA .

Neren Rau, CEO of the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Cosatu was "rushing to strike" about issues that were still up for negotiation.

He said Cosatu's decision to march against two unrelated issues was not constructive, and business was being made to suffer because of one issue - labour broking - that had been brought to the attention of the government.

"They are trying to kill two birds with one stone, which we do not support.

"We are also against e-tolling and we would have supported Cosatu if they had dealt with it constructively," he said.

Rau said the strike would hurt not only productivity and the economy, but would also hurt investor confidence.

Business Unity SA said it was disappointed that Cosatu had resorted to a strike, saying the union federation should consider demanding the regulation of labour brokers as opposed to a complete ban.

The business advocacy group said "constructive engagement would have been preferable to industrial action" on e-tolling.