Activists under the First Action summit together with local traders and truck haulers have decided to upscale their protests to lobby the government to drop the directive that requirers cargo handlers to use the Standard Gauge Railway as opposed to trucks.
The demos scheduled to be on Mondays and Thursdays, have been dubbed #BlackMondays and #BlackThursdays respectively.
“We have tried to lobby the government to consider the suffering of residents who depend on the cargo business in our Monday protests, but it seems efforts have born no fruit. We will now be demonstrating on Mondays and Tuesdays, and if the government does not act, then we will start daily demonstrations” said one activist.
However, despite the government has temporarily lifted the ban, the demonstrators claimed the government was only lip servicing, and none of the hauling services have been registered back as transporters.
The SGR Cargo directive was announced by the government in order to utilize the railway line. Since the directive was announced, traders have lamented bad business and trucking companies forced to retrench workers and selling their trucks.
