N3 blockade truckers to appear in court on multiple charges

Twelve truck drivers were expected to appear in the Ladysmith Magistrate’s Court on Monday after bringing the N3 to a standstill last week to protest against the employment of foreign truck drivers.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker said on Friday numerous truck drivers parked their trucks across the N3 freeway blocking both carriageways.

“They then alighted from their vehicles causing traffic to come to a standstill for the entire day.

“The suspects had taken the keys of some of the trucks rendering them immovable for a long period,” Naicker said.

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He said specialised units from throughout the province were mobilised and assisted to get the trucks moved out of the freeway which resulted in traffic beginning to flow again over the weekend.

Naicker said 12 truck drivers, whose vehicles were obstructing the flow of traffic and who defied instructions by police officials to remove their trucks, were arrested.

“Detectives from the Provincial Investigative Unit took charge of the investigation on the scene and the suspects were charged for contravention of the Criminal Law Amendment Act – Infrastructure contravention, Intimidation, Economic Sabotage as well as contravention of the Road Traffic Act.”

The blockade on Friday stretched along the national routes from the Durban harbour to the Tugela Plaza and beyond.

In November about 30 drivers obstructed both sides of the N3 with trucks and vehicles were backed up for more than a kilometre.

Economist Mike Schussler said it seemed the ACFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area agreement) which talks about free movement of goods and people was dead.

“Other Africans are looking at SA and seeing we are destructive and we again prove that we think we are better but when we must do things we do very little,” he said.

He said it also hurt business confidence and investment in the country.

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“Over time it was certainly billions for the industry, but more for the country as we have delayed exports and production,” he said. Schussler said about R3 billion of goods were transported on the N3 and N11 every day.

“So a one-day protest that stops traffic delays that R3 billion, but the cost is probably R100 million broadly speaking but a day or so we make up most,” he said.

Economist Piet Croucamp said the importance of what happened at the Plaza was that it created distrust in the logistic s capability of the country. “Market economy is based on the principle of trust, confidence that you will deliver goods and services in a certain time,” he said.

Croucamp added that political or sociological unrest harmed the market economy and was one of the reasons why the country struggled to get international investments