The Road Freight Association (RFA) is appealing for progressive intervention from the Department of Labour in a bid to prevent threatened disruption of South Africa’s transport industry over the presence of foreign nationals working in the sector.
In a frank and unbiased interview with Freight News, RFA CEO Gavin Kelly said it was high time that the department dealt with transport companies that consistently flouted regulations governing basic conditions of employment.
“Why doesn’t the Department of Labour, which is the oversight body, not deal with employers who don’t follow the rules?”
It also served to underscore the view that had the necessary steps been taken to stop the illegal employment of foreign national truck drivers in South Africa, xenophobic threats and related attacks could have been prevented, Kelly said.
“Theoretically, if everyone played their part in whatever part of legislation is applicable to them, we wouldn’t have this problem.”
Yet, despite the view that the illegal actions of some trucking companies were imperilling the operational safety and security of everyone across the board, it gave no one the right to threaten foreign nationals working in South Africa, Kelly said.
“Many of these people are legally in South Africa and share the same rights in terms of our Labour Law as South Africans do. They have permits to work here and no one has the right to force operators to dismiss anyone if they are legally employed.”
Meanwhile several threats reminiscent of those that sparked violent truck torching and related xenophobic attacks on South African roads last year and in previous years, have been circulated via social media.
In one of these road hauliers have been given a deadline, July 7, by which time foreign nationals working in South Africa are expected to be replaced by local citizens.
In a similar message also circulated via social media, the All Truck Drivers Forum has said: “We kindly request that you get rid of all foreign national drivers with immediate effect.
“Thereby we would like to give you a period of seven days.”
Mike Fitzmaurice, chief executive of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta), said the reality of the matter was that less than two per cent of truck drivers working South Africa were actually foreign nationals.
“The rest are local. Foreign nationals are employed by local companies who do most of their work cross-border, and they employ drivers from countries such as Zimbabwe because they are more familiar with the conditions in the countries they have to travel through.”
He added that, for the most part, South African drivers were also unwilling to do cross-border work.
“So how exactly are local cross-border transporters supposed to get the job done if they’re not going to be allowed to employ foreign nationals, yet South African’s don’t want to work beyond our borders?”
Ultimately it came down to obeying the law, Kelly said.
“The Department of Labour should do what they’re supposed to do and ensure no one works illegally in South Africa. If the Department of Home Affairs did their job and prevented people from entering this country illegally, it should also not be a problem. Be that as it may, should anyone pose a threat to trucks on our roads, we can only hope that our police force will take the necessary action.”
