Reports were coming in this morning about incidents of freight-sector disruption involving stone-throwing and incidents of arson in support of protest action against foreign nationals working in South Africa’s road transport sector.
This is despite yesterday’s successful High Court interdict by the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry (NBCRFLI) preventing the All Truck Drivers’ Foundation (ATDF) and the SA National Cargo Transport Association (Sancatra) from fomenting xenophobic violence.
A statement issued by the bargaining council’s national secretary, Musa Ndlovu, said the court had granted the NBCRFLI an interdict against the ATDF and Sancatra, preventing them from “organising, encouraging and inciting any other person to participate in protest action or ‘national shutdown’ against the employment of foreign nationals in the road freight and logistics industry on 7 July 2020 or at any other time thereafter”.
Yet this morning several sporadic incidents of encouraging and inciting violence were reported from Gauteng in particular.
In the first incident a rig was petrol-bombed near Pongola in KwaZulu-Natal last night.
That attack, however, was related to service delivery issues in the area – not the first time that violent community protest action and xenophobic vigilantism have blended together to unleash havoc on truck drivers.
Then, this morning, as initial indications seemed to support hopes that yesterday’s interdict might be adhered to, Freight News received several reports to the contrary.
At first a security official from the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta) reported that all was clear around Mooi River on the N3, a notorious flashpoint of truck torching – sometimes perpetrated by service delivery protesters and opportunistic looters, sometimes by xenophobic arsonists – on a primary supply-chain corridor.
By mid-morning though, it seemed clear that certain elements were hell-bent on going ahead with attacks on trucks.
In a video taken on what looks like Heidelberg Road in City Deep, pedestrians can be seen at an intersection running after a turning truck and trying to force a pantechnicon off the road.
As the articulated rig pulls away, rocks fly and the sound of glass shattering can be heard as attackers shout and run alongside the truck.
Elsewhere in Johannesburg, in what was eventually confirmed to be Alrode, a truck can be seen with fire erupting from its side as black smoke billows into the air.
It led Unitrans to announce that its depot would be closed.
“We will not be dispatching any vehicles until the area is safe,” the company told Fesarta.
In another report, trucks were said to be parked across the M2 blocking the road.
It was the first case Freight News had heard of that involved police presence on the scene.
Back in City Deep, although it could not be confirmed whether it was a legitimate accident or not, a truck had lost a load of glass that had spilled across the road in what seemed like a deliberate act of obstruction.
In separate footage, reportedly near Durban, traffic officials are seen standing listening to an irate man accusing the port of "hiring 80% of foreign nationals”.
Although off camera and not visible, he can be heard saying: “This is the two per cent of my drivers. They are unemployed. They are being fed by the social grants of their children. Their children are their bread-winners. Is it fair?”
The man can also be heard arguing that job opportunities in the freight and logistics sector should be created for South Africans.
“Transnet is supposed so improve locals, but you’re hiring foreign nationals,” he says, addressing an official only identified as a manager.
“We are here today pleading with you that our brothers and sisters are hungry,” the man says.
And as reports kept coming in about more incidents of violence and intimidation intended to spread fear and paralysis among road hauliers, Fesarta released the following message they had received: “Attention all SADC truck drivers – South Africa must fall now.
“Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, DRC, Nigeria, Tanzania, Swaziland – from Friday, 10 July, no South African-registered trucks are to cross any of these countries.”
The message calls for drivers from neighbouring countries to block borders into South Africa.
It also asks South African drivers working cross-border to leave.
“Go back to your country and join Sipho Zungu (ATDF leader) and all other South African hooligans.”
WATCH: City Deep attack on pantechnicon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv_QmuBYJrg&feature=youtu.be
