Zambia over the weekend showed South Africa how to stop the violent destabilisation of road freight when it decisively dealt with wildcat strike activists who forced trucks off the roads, prevented others from leaving parking areas, and launched sporadic protests at certain check points. From reports received by FTW, at least 40 people had been arrested and detained for actions in support of the Whatsapp-organised strike which by the end of last week, warned truck drivers against working on the 15th. By issuing repetitive threats, the message intoned that anyone who disobeyed the order to join in the strike “will only have yourself to blame if anything happened to you”. And although the intimidation rippled across Zambia’s road transport sector – with the notoriously congested Kasumbalesa border north into Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ironically becoming de-clogged because trucks were not trying to pass through – the strike fizzled out in under a day. South of Kasumbalesa, in Zambia’s Copper Belt province, police pounced with the full might of the law, arresting 28 people suspected of participation in the strike – likened in certain circles to the same kind of arson-style vigilantism used by the All Truck Drivers Foundation (ATDF) in South Africa. In comparison, Zambian authorities nipped it in the bud. Apart from the mass arrests in the Copper Belt province, stern action was also seen in Kabangwe on the outskirts of the capital where eight people were detained. Further north of Lusaka at Zambia’s hinterland intersection of Kapiri Mposhi, disruption to the T-junction with the one road splitting off to the north eastern part of the country were quickly brought under control with traffic flow proceeding unimpeded. Even in Luapula Province where activists disrupted traffic at Kapalala Check Point, a north-western alternative into the DRC’s Copper Belt, freight flow was restored when three people were arrested and accomplices had to flee because of police action. And at another alternative crossing into the southwestern DRC, Mokambo, truck drivers who had successfully navigated the notoriously bad dirt track from Kasumbalesa were met with stone throwing south of the border. One transporter of bulk liquid into the DRC’s Copper Belt described the strike as chaotic. “Every weekend it’s another story. I have seen over the years this is what Zambians like to do, act on a Friday so you have the whole weekend to feel the pain.” The same reliable source has in the past convincingly argued how strategically important it is to maintain the fluid transit of cargo through Zambia as without ease of passage through this country, cargo intended for ports in Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania is usually delayed. And although he criticised Zambia for the manner in which it managed its road freight sector, the lingering impression from the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta) is that Zambia swiftly showed who was in charge. As the dust settled on the strike on Saturday morning, with minor after-affects still felt in a few places, Zambia Home Affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo warned activists not to proceed down the path of disruption.
INSERT: Every weekend it’s another story. I have seen over the years this is what Zambians like to do. – Stephen Kampyongo
