Local truck drivers say the employment of foreign nationals by South African trucking companies remains a significant challenge, despite years of work to address this issue amid destructive protests that have caused millions of rand in property damage.

One of the unions for the truck drivers now wants a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Between 2021 and 2024, there have been numerous truck attack incidents along the N3 route where trucks were set alight. In 2023, one incident at Van Reenen’s Pass saw several trucks burned, with damage estimated at R80 million.

In response to the complaints by local drivers and truck attacks in recent years, the government formed multidisciplinary task teams in a bid to ensure labour law compliance within the industry and to address local drivers’ grievances.

A former leader of the truck driving union, who declined to be named, told The Mercury that very little has happened to deal with the local drivers’ complaints.

“The government lied; nothing has changed in this industry. You still have many foreign drivers in South Africa.”

He said there were other issues including low wages.

“We are suffering. In one of the recommendations made by that task team, it said we must be treated with respect and in compliance with the labour laws. I can tell you now it is not the case,” he said.

Gugu Sokhela, the deputy secretary-general of the All Truck Drivers Forum, said they now wanted to raise their concerns with Ramaphosa.

“We want to meet with the president and present our case because these task teams are not helping. There is no movement in this matter. The only time that government officials show interest is when local truck drivers threaten a shutdown, and then we see these officials coming to say, ‘let’s hear what these drivers want to say,’” he said.

He said a meeting with the task team was set for Wednesday where they would raise their frustration with the lack of progress.

“We now seek the intervention of the president. Since those task teams were formed, there has been no movement on addressing the appointment of foreign drivers. Initially, there was a proposal for inspections in certain companies in KwaZulu-Natal, but we found that it is only the SAPS that shows up for those inspections. They cannot verify whether that person is in the country legally or whether they are allowed to work because the people who are supposed to check that, Labour and Home Affairs, are not present,” Sokhela said.

Gavin Kelly, of the Road Freight Association, said: “The summary by the unions is correct; not much has been achieved (however, the goalposts are repeatedly changed). The SAPS, Department of Home Affairs, and Department of Employment and Labour do implement inspections (raids) on employers – mostly those that are registered and are known. The ‘unknown/non-compliant companies’ slip through the net. The current exemption permit has been extended for another year. The committee has also focused on matters not in the original scope – which is very frustrating.”

The Department of Home Affairs directed all questions to the Department of Labour. At the time of publication, the Department of Labour had not responded to repeated requests for comment which were sent last week.

THE MERCURY

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