The Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) in KwaZulu-Natal staged an e-toll protest on Thursday, with just over 100 picketers gathering outside the N3TC office at the Marriannhill Toll Plaza.

The picketers, who sang and danced, had been bussed in by the trade union.

They carried placards calling for the scrapping of e-tolls, even though there is no formal electronic tolling planned for the province.

Cosatu provincial secretary Edwin Mkhize said that they were demonstrating against "irresponsible" companies like the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).

"The reason why we are here is that we have noticed that there is a new strategy by Sanral to introduce e-tolls across the country. We will demonstrate against the conduct and against the Shesha lane (lane equiped with electroning tolling technology) that they have brought in," he said.

At the Marriannhill Plaza, there is one lane that accepts e-tags - with eight one-way lanes for cash or card payments.

"Sanral is irresponsible because you can’t introduce something that is going to take away the jobs of people. We cannot sit and fold our arms and allow such irresponsible conduct," he added.

Traffic on one lane of the toll gate was obstructed briefly before demonstrators moved off.