The failure by the South African government to provide feedback on November 3 to small truck operators regarding the employment of foreign drivers resulted in the blockade of the N3 highway near Van Reenen yesterday.
Several sources within the trucking fraternity said the
truck protest followed a memorandum of demands handed to transport and labour
ministers Fikile Mbalula and Thulas Nxesi on October 25 during a protest on the
N9 and N10 highways outside Middelburg in the Eastern Cape.
The ministers accepted the memorandum, calling for
intervention into the four-year long debate about the employment of foreign nationals
in the logistics industry and its effect on job opportunities for South
Africans.
After an agreement was reached, government said a technical
team would report back to the drivers and small truck operators, which sources
claimed did not happen.
National Truck Drivers Association secretary-general
Siphosihle Muthwa alleged the government had failed to respond to the drivers
within seven days, as initially agreed upon.
“Government promised the drivers that within seven days
they would provide them with feedback into the process of addressing concerns
around the employment of foreign nationals, among other issues. Government
never came back to them. That is why we are seeing what is happening on the
N3.”
Muthwa said one of the demands in the memorandum was for
the government to remove the operating licences of employers hiring foreign
nationals.
“That will stop all the things that are happening, but
government do not want to give the memorandum to employers. That is why drivers
are angry.”
At 9am, the N3 Toll Concession said all lanes remained
closed at Van Reenen, resulting in a standstill northbound from Tugela toll
plaza and southbound from Van Reenen.
Police spokesperson Brig Jay Naicker said it was alleged
truck drivers parked their vehicles on the N3 and removed the keys.
He said the police were at the scene and attempts were
under way to have the trucks removed.
All Truck Drivers Forum and Allied SA (ATDFASA)
secretary-general Sifiso Nyathi disputed their involvement in the protests.
Always when there’s something like that they say it is
ATDFASA. What is the violence there? They are putting out wrong information. —
TimesLIVE
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