Thousands of people are expected to participate in a Cosatu protest march in Johannesburg today. Cosatu has organised the march to protest against rising food, fuel and electricity prices. The protests are expected to hamper traffic flow in the Johannesburg CBD. Commuters have been left stranded in Johannesburg due to the unavailability of public transport. Commuters in Soweto have been left stranded and at the Noord Street taxi-rank in Johannesburg city centre there are long queues of commuters waiting for transport.

We have just received an account about what is happening in central Johannesburg from a lady who wishes to remain anonymous:

“There is a strike on this particular day, but unfortunately i’m not sure how that slipped my ears. I leave for work early in the morning, i get into Germiston with no problem at all. My taxi from Germiston to Joburg, no problem at all. When i get into Joburg CBD, boy, do i get the shock of my life. Streets are jam packed with people and i’m clueless as to what’s going on. The Noord MTN taxi rank is packed with people but not even one taxi in sight. People are hiking on the streets, private cars are stopping here and there, and one going to Sandton charging R25 per person. I end up in a private car and this car is literally stopped by a taxi, halting right in front of it and the taxi driver orders everyone to get out and we are chased away from this particular spot we were hiking. Everyone is in a panic, people are being chased, people are being robbed off their belongings, for what?“