While the trucker forum says it has nothing to do with the recent truck attack on the N3 at Van Reenen’s Pass yesterday morning, it threatens to intensify the protest against foreign truckers.
Six trucks were torched in the early hours of Sunday in what the Road Freight Association (RFA) described as a “coordinated attack”.
According to Baha’i Minister of Police Sele, One of the trucks queued at the N3 Concession Plaza was attacked by occupants of a white vehicle who forced it to a stop, opened fire on it, and then set it on fire. Five other trucks were also burned.
The RFA said damage costs including payload could range from 18 million to 60 million rand.
Speaking to Sowetan yesterday, All Truck Drivers Forum and Allied SA ATDF ASA Secretary Sevisu Nyathi said that they had signed the Task Force Implementation Plan document in June last year which would have ensured minimum employment of foreigners as truck drivers.
We have taken these issues up with the government and they have never been settled. It’s just people talking but nothing being done, companies are still hiring foreign nationals.
Nyathi said they would soon protest their grievances but did not say when.
Part of what was said in the document that was signed, which was seen by Sowetan, is confirmation of driver’s licenses and professional driving permits for foreign drivers, identification of invalid foreign driver’s licenses and that all trucks transporting goods for earning or on behalf of a third party must register with the Board. negotiation.
But according to Nyathi, none of these plans have been implemented.
“[The] “The government is deceiving us because it is not taking any action against the employers,” Nyathi said.
Gavin Kelly, chief executive of RFA, also said significant things from the taskforce’s implementation plans had yet to be implemented, adding that had they been implemented “I don’t think we would be where we are today.”
Kelly believes that the extension of exemption permits from Zimbabwe and the recent ruling on permits issued by the Pretoria High Court would “bring more headaches”.
Now it looks like she’s going to pull this off [government’s implementation plans] Even further than that.”
Kelly also said the proposed tightening of driver’s permit requirements was “flawed” in the case of legitimate cross-border operations.
“The issue of the PrDPs is what the DOT thought was their silver ring in addressing the number of foreign drivers driving vehicles in SA for SA companies,” he said.
On the subject of the recent truck attack, Kelly described it as “disturbing,” adding that at this point, no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Kelly said the incident was a “ruthless attack” on the road freight supply chain, and the effects were far-reaching.
He also said that immediate short-term losses would be in the millions of rand – and the long-term impact in terms of increased security costs would be seen in the cost of logistics, higher insurance premiums, higher Sasria coverage premiums, higher toll charges, less freight traffic across the SA, closure of shippers, loss of jobs.”
He said in the past that the ATDF and its affiliates have “often admitted” they were behind the attacks, but deny having received yesterday’s attack.
He said they suspected the attack was motivated by dissatisfaction with the employment of foreigners in the Strip. He said these incidents had been occurring for the past six years.
We’ve heard the police minister refer to economic vandalism and many other forms of description, but this behavior seems to continue unabated.
“If this is indeed the work of the ATDF and its counterparts related to the employment of illegal aliens in road freight [or any other] Then the responsible department of employment and labour, and its inspection structures, must ensure that their responsibility to protect employees and employers from non-compliant labor practices is enforced rigorously and expeditiously,” Kelly said.