Says it wants zero foreigners in the industry. This comes just days before national elections. From Moneyweb.
UPDATE: It was announced early on Monday morning that the shutdown has been suspended:
A national shutdown has been threatened for Monday 20 May by the All Truck Drivers Forum and Allied SA (ATDF-SA), which has urged all truckers to ‘down tools’ until the government meets its demands to rid the country of foreigners in the trucking industry.
The ATDF-SA says the planned shutdown is a protest, but that it cannot guarantee that certain factions or individuals will not resort to violence or perpetrate other unlawful acts.
The truckers’ forum, which has been accused of inciting xenophobia, has reportedly not received the assurance it requested from the Department of Labour and Employment to investigate allegations that some transport companies were employing foreigners without following proper legal processes.
Coming just days before national elections, the threatened shutdown appears timed for maximum political impact.
Read: Trucking protests re-emerge ahead of the elections [Oct 2021]
The ICE (‘in case of emergency’) Group community network operating in the Pretoria area says the highways most at risk in Gauteng are the R21, R25, R562, M57, M18, and surrounding informal settlements.
It urges drivers to make contingency plans for driver, vehicle and freight safety and to limit the number of dispatch vehicles, based on the extent of the shutdown.
Determined
The ATDF-SA has made repeated calls for foreigners to be excluded from the trucking industry.
Last year it was one of several parties to bring a case against the Department of Home Affairs and its minister for the decision to extend the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) scheme.
The forum argued that the minister did not have the power to institute the permit system in the first place, nor to extend it.
Not a strike – a ‘protest’ by the unemployed
Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association (RFA), refuted the claim that there will be a truck strike.
“Strikes happen between the employer and employee when disagreement arises in the workplace,” he said.
“This is a protest by unemployed individuals through the ATDF-SA who are not happy with the response they have received from the Department of Employment and Labour (DoEL).
“Unfortunately, the grievances raised by the ATDF-SA require action by the relevant government authorities, whose mandate it is to have prevented such a situation from ever happening.”
The ATDF-SA has neither confirmed nor dismissed allegations that there will be a prolonged period of protest, nor that the dates of the protest may change. The leadership has referred all queries back to the notice circulated by the organisation, according to the RFA.
Read: Unemployment rises in Q1
The RFA has advised its members that the proposed shutdown is proceeding as planned, unless new developments occur.
‘Hate groups cannot hold trade to ransom’
“The proposed shut down by ATDF-SA is a threat not just to the South African economy, but the region,” says Advocate Simba Chitando, legal representative for the Zimbabwean Truckers Association.
“The forum does not appreciate the fact that South Africa is not an island, but an interdependent nation that benefits from trade with its neighbours.
“The jobs South African truck drivers seek to protect only exist because of trade with the region, and in that respect, jobs in the logistics industry do not belong to South African drivers alone,” he adds.
“The South African government has a positive obligation to both advise its citizens of the commitments they made in the terms provided for by the African Free Trade Agreement, which South Africa benefits from, and maintain law and order on South African roads.
“ATDF-SA, and similar xenophobic hate groups, cannot hold trade in Southern African Development Community to ransom.”
Read: Attacks on trucks are an attack on the economy
Truck torchings: SA risks losing drivers and exports
The Zimbabwean Truckers Association says more than 400 foreign drivers have been killed in SA since 2019 due to xenophobic incitement.
Earlier this year, Moneyweb reported that many Zimbabwean truckers were headed to Poland for work after being denied the ability to renew their drivers’ licences in SA.
