Cosatu will hold mass action at the end of February against Gauteng's toll roads, its general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Thursday.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions would issue a final notice in the National Economic Development and Labour Council for the right to a protected strike, said Vavi.

"The tolls are to go ahead anyway, despite the public hearings which have turned out to have been a waste of time," he told reporters in Johannesburg.

The matter had been on the agenda at Cosatu's central executive committee meeting over past two days.

Vavi said Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele had yet to respond to a request for a meeting, at which he would be required to explain why the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project was going ahead.

"In the meantime, we are urging people not to buy e-tags and, if the tolls have not been scrapped, we will be encouraging motorists to drive through the tolls without paying," said Vavi.

"In this act of civil disobedience, we shall not present ourselves to the courts and will not pay fines imposed for merely using public roads..."

Ndebele ordered a halt to all road project processes related to the tolling of national roads on October 23. This was to hear alternative views from the public on the best possible model of financing debt.

The first day of public hearings started with a protest march in Johannesburg on November 11.

This followed a process in which fees were revised and approved by Cabinet.

It was decided that qualifying public transport vehicles would be exempt from the toll. For private motorists, however, light motor vehicles will pay R0.40/km, medium vehicles R1/km, "longer" vehicles R2/km, and bikers R0.24/km.