Plan for national shutdown by SA truck drivers shot down

The call to join a three-day national shutdown by SA truck drivers “to clean the industry” of foreign drivers has left the industry jittery, with lawyers demanding that a group of local truck drivers advocating for 100% employment of locals commit not to organise, encourage or participate in the action.

In a letter addressed to All Truck Drivers Foundation’s (ATDF) secretary-general Sifiso Nyathi, lawyers acting for the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry states that the council has been made aware of the notice for the shutdown that is being distributed on social media.

The author of the notice, which calls for South Africans to unite “to remove all foreign drivers” from today until Wednesday, is unknown. The notice also warns non-South African drivers that “your time is over”. Similar protest actions by truck drivers have been characterised by violence, including the burning of trucks and assault on drivers.

The notice was distributed days after the petrol bombing of nine trucks carrying an assortment of goods, including soft drinks, potatoes and paving bricks on Gauteng’s N3 between Heidelberg and Vosloorus on Thursday. The lawyers demand that the ATDF publicly distance itself from the action.

“Our client demands that the ATDF immediately publish a statement on its social media platforms, clearly distancing itself from the call for the envisaged shutdown and the associated incitement of violence against commercial truck operators, their assets, clients and/or employees … should we not receive these undertakings timeously, we are instructed to launch urgent court proceedings against the ATDF,” the letter from lawyer, Moeti Kanyane, states.

The letter, sent on Friday, has infuriated ATDF’s Nyathi, who said it was baffling that the letter was addressed to them though they have had nothing to do with the call to action.

“How do you go to court to force someone to say something? That is rubbish. It is pure madness. How can you force me to talk about something I am not involved in? They are probably high on dagga. We are not going to bother ourselves about something we know nothing about,” Nyathi claimed.

Meanwhile, reports indicate five more trucks have been set alight late on Saturday night on the R59, between Gauteng and the Free State, and on the N1.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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