What's happening in Mediterranean & Africa

 

Eng

繁體

简体

Violence shifts black-on-white to black-on-black as South African truckers slaughtered

THE ferocity of South Africa's drive to expropriate white-owned land without compensation, and the black-on-white murders that went with it, has largely been replaced by black-on-black slaughter as savage attacks on foreign truckers soar.

The ferocity of the punitive Economic Freedom Fighters' (EFF) land seizure campaign has abated after last year's elections returned the African National Congress (ANC) to power with 57.5 per cent of the vote, leaving the radical EFF's 10.7 per cent with hardly the mandate to sustain the widespread confiscations many feared.

Thus, more modest "land reform", as property seizures are called, will go ahead cautiously, only affecting land held for "speculative purposes" or occupied by tenants that "should" be given away.

What is now drawing unfavourable attention to South Africa is the 213 drivers murdered - mostly from neighbouring impoverished Zimbabwe and hardly affluent Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique - since March 2018, and 1,200 vehicles have been destroyed, says the national truck lobby, Road Freight Association (RFA).

Said RFA chief executive Gavin Kelly: “Some transporters have also lost contracts because their vehicles were destroyed and can no longer operate. Some truckers have said that they are not going to transport their goods under the current volatile situation.”

Men claiming to be South African truck drivers have thrown petrol bombs at trucks and shot at, stoned, stabbed, and harassed foreign truckers to force them out of business.

Many drivers have lost their jobs, despite having valid work permits, or have been unable to return to work due to injuries or damage to their trucks. Some of the attackers claimed affiliation to the All Truck Drivers Foundation (ATDF), an association of local truck drivers.

 “South African authorities should urgently intervene to stop the unlawful, unprovoked, and violent attacks and harassment of foreign truck drivers and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Dewa Mavhinga, southern Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

 “Any problems in the trucking industry, including undocumented drivers, are for the authorities to address. There is no defence for groups committing such violent, horrific crimes,” she said.

ATDF leaders say they oppose companies hiring undocumented foreign truck drivers, but 18 of the 23 foreign drivers Human Rights Watch interviewed presented valid South African work permits.

South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said he was aware that the attacks on truck drivers and the burning of trucks had spread from Durban to Mpumalanga Province, 360 miles away.

While noting that a 2014 Home Affairs Immigration Directive authorised foreign truck drivers employed by South African companies to work in South Africa on a visitor’s permit, he acknowledged some employers hired foreign truck drivers without following the relevant government policy.

While the government spoke of plans to increase protection for drivers and deter attacks on them and their trucks, there has been little evidence of such efforts, says Human Rights Watch, which closely monitors the situation.

Showing ambivalence on the issue, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said at a press conference said the cause of the crisis is the “oversupply of foreign drivers in the industry, and some of the drivers are undocumented.”

Also showing ambivalence was Police Minister Bheki Cele. While he said they had arrested 91 alleged attackers, it later transpired they had only been charged with minor traffic violations.

Attacks against foreign nationals in Durban are the worst, and have led to the displacement of hundreds, some deaths, and several injuries. Since then, the Positive Freight Solutions Forum (PFSF), a South African truck owner association, estimates that there have been over 75 incidents of attacks against foreign truck drivers and their freight.

The perpetrators have targeted foreign truck drivers, or trucks owned by companies known to employ foreign truck drivers. Such incidents include the stabbing of Zimbabwean truck driver Tinei Takawira in Durban, a petrol bomb attack on a foreign truck driver in Durban, and attacks of several foreign truck drivers in Witbank in June.

According to media reports, in a three-week period, more than 60 trucks were hit with petrol bombs in several attacks that each targeted multiple trucks. Most occurred near Mooi River on the N3 highway, which connects Durban to Johannesburg.

The ATDF, whose slogan is “foreign drivers must fall” called for the resignation of all foreign truck drivers. Part of the statement read: "To all foreigners who are driving in South Africa, we no longer want to see you in trucks. If we see any foreign driver still driving a South African registered truck, we don’t know what will happen because we are sick of you now, and we are not going to let you take our job."

The government has done little to address the attacks despite issuing a National Action Plan to combat xenophobia. During an inter-ministerial meeting in Durban, home affairs, transport and labour ministers, as well as representatives of truck owners and drivers, resolved to end the employment of undocumented drivers.

Truck owner lobby, the Positive Freight Solution Forum (PFSF), sought and won an injunction from the Pietermaritzburg High Court against the ATDF. They asked the court “to restrain them [ATDF] from assaulting, abusing, harassing, or threatening truck drivers; from damaging, stoning, and destroying trucks; and from publishing or disseminating information on social media inciting violence against truck owners, their assets, and their employees.”

Neither the injunction nor the threat of a walkout had much impact on the situation.

On the 834-mile Cape Town-Johannesburg N12 near the small town of Ogies in Mpumalanga Province, bordering Johannesburg and nearby Pretoria, have since been the site of violent protests aimed at foreign truck drivers. The protest led to the sporadic torching of heavy duty vehicles as well as the closure of several highways and national roads.

 “We are not safe anywhere,” said Tendai Marechera, a Zimbabwean truck driver who has been working in South Africa for the past 12 years. 

He told the Johannesburg Mail & Guardian of attacks on foreign drivers on the country’s roads last year have increased. Even designated truck stops have become too dangerous.

 “You have to plan your trips nicely because if you don’t you might drive around at 2am looking for a safe place to sleep. They are mobilising themselves, those guys know when the foreign guys will pass through the stop,” Mr Marechera said.

He recalled an incident in July outside a Pep store in Ogies where he parked. While looking for his bank card, still seated in the cab, he was surrounded by a mob, demanding he hand over the keys to the vehicle. Within five minutes, he says, the mob had grown from about 10 to 22 people. He locked the doors and turned on the ignition as the mob grew louder.

 “One came closer to the truck carrying a brick in his hand. He threw the brick through the driver’s side of the window, breaking the window.”

There was a long pause before he continued: “if I had found my card quickly and gone to the shop then probably they would’ve killed me.”

Mr Marechera says the only thing that he had to defend himself against the bricks was a pillow that he keeps behind the driver’s seat. He held it in front of his face as he drove away with one hand on the steering wheel.

Reports said that a truck had been stoned and set alight in Lwandle, near the Strand and other trucks had been petrol bombed along the N7 near Moorreesburg, about 90 kilometres northwest of Cape Town, in the early one morning.

The RFA estimates that the ongoing violence in the sector has cost the economy ZAR1.2 billion (US$81.9 million) over the past year. This figure is based on factors, including the loss of income to drivers, loss of vehicles and damaged cargo. An estimated 1,200 vehicles have been destroyed.

Keeping things in perspective, one must consider that while the violence against truckers is horrific, on average, 57 murders are committed each day in South Africa, that's 35.9 per 100,000 against the global average of 6.2 per 100,000, more than five times as many.

Nonetheless the situation, largely in the face of government indifference or impotence, is bound to get worse as it destroys the road haulage sector that is unusually predominant because of weakness of rail and the near total absence of navigable waterways.

* - Indicate required field(s).
What should the South African government do to rectify the situation? It is a classic problem where there are many unskilled men seeking work from neighbouring countries, willing to work for less than native South Africans and getting jobs that would otherwise be theirs.

* Message :

* Email :  

 

Mediterranean & Africa
Trade Specialists

Highroad International Logistics
Professional door to door service
More....
Choice Int'l Forwarding Co Ltd.
Your Best Choice to Africa
More....