The All Truck Drivers’ Foundation (ATDF) has denied accusations that it violently disrupted transport on South African roads and intimidated truck drivers, as allegedly happened yesterday, adding that they had merely ‘interacted’ with a rig on the N3.
This follows footage showing two cars, a sedan and a bakkie, parked on the yellow chevron section of the Key Ridge compulsory truck stop between Marianhill Toll Plaza and Pietermaritzburg.
In an exclusive interview with Freight News, national secretary Sifiso Nyathi said the ATDF was merely asking for donations from truck drivers to boost the struggling organisation’s coffers.
However, a message sent out by the Federation of East and Southern African Transport Associations (Fesarta) said: “There is a car with an ATDF banner stopping and checking trucks looking for foreign drivers.
“Please be alert!”
But Nyathi, who confirmed that he was driving the bakkie and that the organisation’s chairman Siyabonga Dlamini was driving the sedan, described Fesarta’s assessment of the situation as nonsense.
“We weren’t stopping the truck. There is no stop street on the highway. We were only asking for money.”
Asked why the bakkie’s number-plate was obscured by an ATDF banner covering its tailgate area, Nyathi said: “That was unintentional. We didn’t know that you couldn’t see the bakkie’s registration plate.”
It’s not the first time that the ATDF has been accused of intimidating truck drivers, especially on the N3 where scenes of violent arson attacks over the past few years, apparently in opposition to foreign nationals working in South Africa’s road transport sector, have sparked wide-scale xenophobic unrest, claiming lives, destroying property and making headlines the world over.
“We have never done that,” Nyathi said.
“We don’t burn trucks. We’re not criminal. The real criminals are the employers who take in drivers from other countries when drivers from our own country sit without work.”
Asked why the ADTF was not registered with the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight Industry (NBCRFI), Nyathi said: “We are registered with different organisations. We are legal, despite what people say. They accuse us of wrong doing because they want to paint us in a certain way.”
However, Nyathi couldn’t say with whom the ATDF was registered.
He added though that the ATDF was working hard to shake off the industry perception that it was a vigilante organisation by following the necessary official channels in a bid to bolster their objective of securing South African transport employment opportunities for local drivers.
“The problem is the NBCRFI wants us to become something we are not. We don’t want to do that. The private sector should rather ask itself how come the Department of Labour and Department of Home Affairs are not honouring their mandates by looking out for the interests of South African people.”
When the comment was made that certain cross-border transporters based in South Africa have to make use of foreign national drivers out of necessity, because they are familiar with the culture, language, and road conditions in neighbouring countries, Nyathi said “that’s rubbish!”
“It’s not necessary to know those things. Our people are willing and able to work beyond our borders but many transporters in South Africa use that as an excuse, saying it makes practical sense to employ foreign nationals to make work for them.”
Asked to comment on foreign nationals who legally work as drivers in South Africa, Nyathi said: “According to our laws there are two types of visas allowing people to work in this country and not one of them includes a Professional Driving Permit. It’s illegal what they are doing.”
Nyathi said it had long been known that foreign nationals exploited work visas, coming in under different names, easily getting new permits and working for less salary.
“South African drivers are exploited and the government and its departments have known about it for long. They are the ones who should be answering questions about what’s happening in the transport sector – not us!”
Earlier today, when Freight News spoke to the Road Freight Association (RFA) about yesterday’s incident at Key Ridge, RFA chief executive Gavin Kelly said: “It’s illegal. You may not do that. Why aren’t the police doing anything about this?”
Mike Fitzmaurice of Fesarta said Sibulele Dyodo of the Cross-Border Road Transport Association (CBRTA) had told them that they knew about the ATDF’s actions and that they had it under control.
“But I don’t think so. The CBRTA may say that they have it under control but if you look at what happened yesterday it doesn’t seem to be the case.”
Meanwhile the ATDF is threatening wide-scale disruption of road hauliers across South Africa if foreign nationals employed by the transport sectors aren’t dismissed by the 7th of July.
This morning transporters operating on Gauteng roads were also on tenterhooks as two municipal unions are set to go ahead with labour action aimed at disrupting all traffic passing through Gilloolys Interchange.
“It’s all very worrying what’s happening at the moment,” Fitzmaurice said.
“We will be monitoring the situation but advise all transporters to make sure that the roads they are using are safe.”
