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10:12 UPDATE: Taxi drivers in Durban slaughtered goats and burnt tyres on a road as part of a strike thought to be in response to recent route permit enforcement by metro police, said News24 reporter on the scene Giordano Stolley.
"One man carrying a green Sprite bottle is pouring petrol from it onto rubbish and setting it alight," said Stolley.
The strikers reached the municipal bus depot and were "tearing the gate down". They also stole the ladder of a man working on the overhang, leaving the man unable to get down.
Police arrived soon after and fired shots at the protesters.
A car that was stoned. (Giordano Stolley, News24)
This is a developing story.
The main arterial routes in Durban were sporadically gridlocked by rolling blockades orchestrated by minibus taxi drivers on Tuesday morning.
(Joe Stolley, News24)
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The strike is understood to be in response to recent route permit enforcement by metro police.
A group of men, thought to be taxi drivers, stoned a metro police car in central Durban on Tuesday morning.
Metro police sources confirmed that slow-moving traffic as a result of road blockades had been reported on the following routes:
- M1 Higginson Highway
- Phoenix Highway
- North Coast Road
- N3 near Tollgate Bridge
- Warwick Junction
- M4 Southern Freeway.
“Metro police have responded to several incidents this morning and it would appear that the taxi drivers just move off when police arrive. They have been causing havoc with the traffic in the city this morning,” said a source who could not be named.
"We have been told to crack down on route permits and have impounded nearly 100 taxis in the past couple of days for either not having valid permits to operate on their routes or for deviating from the approved routes," the source added.
Metro police spokesperson Eugene Msomi could not be reached for comment at the time of publishing.
