‘I don't think we'll survive. SA is our home,’ say truck drivers

Mozambican Ezekiel Mamba has been driving long-distance trucks in SA for 15 years.

He is distraught at government plans to limit the number of foreigners working in certain economic sectors, and suspects the trucking industry will be among those targeted in draft legislation.

Mamba, 45, fears for the future of his family, especially his five children aged between three and 16 who are at school in SA. Four of them were born in SA.

“Where would we find a school that teaches Setswana in Mozambique? The school curriculum is not the same. My children don’t even know Portuguese, which is the main language spoken there. We would struggle and I don’t think we’ll survive. SA is our home,” he said.

Mamba came to SA because he could not find a job in Mozambique. He bought a stand in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, where he built a house, and brought his Mozambican wife to SA. He has a work permit and says he has built his life here. ​

The issue of foreign truck drivers has sparked a great deal of  violence in SA in recent years, with dozens of trucks looted and set alight, and several drivers killed or injured. Protest blockades have closed down crucial highways — particularly the N3 — preventing the transport of goods between provinces.

Unions say these jobs should be reserved for South Africans.

In November, the police and the departments of home affairs and of employment & labour released a joint statement saying they had “committed to speed up” policy changes regarding road freight.

After its February 9 meeting, the cabinet said it had approved the launch of public consultations on the proposed national labour migration policy (NLMP) and Employment Services Amendment Bill. 

It said the policy aimed to provide a “balance between the protection of the employment of South Africans while taking cognisance of the economic skills required by the country”.

The draft policy is yet to be made public.

Edward Muchatuta, chair of the Southern African Development Community Truck Drivers’ Association, says the government should properly implement current laws before it makes new ones. 

“SA currently has a policy that a company should not employ more than 40% foreigners. What are they doing to make sure that there is compliance with that policy?”

He said the government did not conduct inspections to ensure companies  complied with laws concerning the employment of foreigners. 

Originally from Zimbabwe, Muchatuta said a clampdown on documented foreign workers would see them “punished” while illegal workers would continue working.

“It will create a situation where documented foreigners will work illegally because nothing is done to deal with undocumented foreigners.”

While he could not say how many foreign truck drivers work in SA, “the number of undocumented far exceeds the number of documented”.

Muchatuta said foreign truck drivers would retaliate against legislation that targeted them.

“We’ve learnt from our counterparts how to rebel and we will do just that. If the South African government does not want foreigners to work here, we will make sure that no South African trucks drive on roads of foreign countries,” he said.

South African truck driver Teenage Mabiza says he has no problem with foreign truck drivers, as long as they have work permits. He says the  government should instead “address the basics” in the industry.

This included long waiting times at Komatipoort in Mpumalanga, where trucks wait at the border up to  three days to enter Mozambique, with inadequate ablution facilities for drivers.

“They must start with making sure this border is functioning properly before coming up with anything fancy. They must hire more SA Revenue Service staff and make sure that their equipment is working all the time,” Mabiza said.

He decried the high level of crime at the border. 

“When it gets dark, you start expecting anything bad to happen. You can't even go out to pee, because the boys will attack you. They take anything they can put their hands on.” 

Mabiza said drivers can’t go out to buy food at nearby garages because of the crime. 

“Sometimes they even steal parts from the truck while we are waiting in the queue. They steal tyres, fire extinguishers and sometimes even the goods in the truck, especially food,” he said. 

​However, another South African truck driver, who did not want to be named, said he was not happy with companies employing foreigners, because they were given preference.

“Employers prefer foreigners because these people are always willing to work. They work throughout the year without taking any leave, or days off. 

"Whether it’s Christmas or weekends, they just want to work and employers want exactly that. They end up employing them. Right now my employers employ close to 70% foreigners and only 30% are locals. This should be the other way round,” he said.

When it gets dark, you start expecting anything bad to happen. You can't even go out to pee, because the boys will come and attack you

—  South African truck driver Teenage Mabiza

An undocumented truck driver from Malawi, who did not want to be named, said he had been trying to get his papers  in order since he arrived in SA in 2010.

He said he was not proud of being undocumented and to arrive at his destinations, he has to have cash on him so he can bribe law-enforcement officials on the road. 

He said he pays anything from R50 to R300 on each occasion.

“Sometimes you give them R50 and they let you go, while some would say ‘Stop playing and put more money’,”  he said. 

The 50-year-old father of five said his family is in Malawi and he sees them only once a year.

He rents a room in central Johannesburg  but hardly spends time there because he is always on the road. 

“We are just trying to earn a living, like everyone else. Why come up with [laws] that discriminate against us?”

He said his SA colleagues earn about R6,500 a week, while he earns R3,750 a week. 

“We work four weeks and we are supposed to rest for seven days. I usually don’t take that rest and work those days so I can claim overtime.”

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY:

Road Freight Association (RFA) CEO Gavin Kelly said the association supports action by  authorities to ensure employees are protected and paid rates agreed to between organised labour and employers through collective bargaining.

He said the association understands why quotas are being discussed, but he is not convinced this will solve the challenges.

“The proposals we have made to various departments around the tighter registration and control of companies when they apply for operator cards in the transport sector will go far further in reducing the occurrence of noncompliant companies,” he said. 

Kelly said the RFA has repeatedly told the government that the solution was the implementation of existing labour laws, coupled with inspections and remedial actions to be implemented by employers and/or employees who are not compliant.

“Further to this, the process of issuing certain visas or special permits must be scrutinised for weaknesses or loopholes, and this must be tightened up or adapted to ensure proper access is given to deserving applicants,” Kelly said. 

Labour economist Andrew Levy  said the issue of foreign workers is driven by politics.

He fears that if the government is aggressive with its policies, the logistics sector could face a shortage of qualified truck drivers.

As a short-term solution, he said, he hopes the government will regulate the industry through fixed-term contracts for foreign truck drivers because it takes a lot of experience to become a safe and reliable driver.

“If we root out foreign drivers, we will find ourselves with a challenge, where our logistics chain will be interrupted.

It takes years of experience for one to be a competent long-distance truck driver and the country should be careful how it implements this policy if it goes ahead,” he said.

Vusi Ntshangase of the Democratised Transport Logistics & Allied Workers Union ) said the government should move with speed to implement the policy. It would bring relief to locals as they would get jobs because “a lot of our qualified local drivers are sitting at home without jobs”.

Ntshangase said employers were choosing to employ foreigners over South Africans as they prefer cheap labour

Migrant Workers’ Association SA chair Butholezwe Nyathi said his organisation is disappointed with the rigid stance the government has taken on foreigners. 

“The administration has no room for foreigners. They are not accessible to us and they have never invited us to the table. Even when we knock on their doors, they don’t open them for us.”

He said he understands that SA is under pressure to meet the needs of its citizens but said it could do so without discriminating against foreigners.

The government needed to regulate migrants, and this would also benefit migrants who are exploited by employers.

Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said the immigration issue is a “hot potato” in SA.  “The government has been avoiding the issue for quite some time and now they want to push a policy without thinking it through properly.”

He said the frustration of unemployment among locals was genuine but, as usual, foreigners were the scapegoats. 

He said SA does not have immigration policies and suffers from having a poor economy. The reality is that if all foreigners were to leave,  SA would not function properly because there are jobs locals are not prepared to do — the hospitality sector, he said, is filled with foreigners.

“When you look at things like tuck shops, they are mainly run by foreigners — waitressing jobs, car guards and most domestic workers are foreigners,” he said.

All Truck Drivers Forum secretary-general Sifiso Nyathi said his organisation was meeting today with its legal representatives to decide on a way forward to convince the government to include the trucking industry in the list of sectors earmarked for quotas.

“We will keep on fighting, we will keep on demonstrating. Government must put the needs of South Africans first. Not foreigners. This is in line with the rest of the world. We need to reduce unemployment. Government gave an undertaking in 2019 to identify non-critical skills jobs for South Africans but they have done nothing.”

Political analyst Professor Barry Hanyane said he doesn’t see the policy being implemented by the current administration because it tries to please everyone.

“Protectionism is on the rise in Africa  and the South African government is trying to respond bureaucratically to protect its citizens. However, the problem is that the government doesn’t have a firm position on the issue.

“Political parties are almost taking the law into their own hands by conducting inspections at businesses because they feel the government is not doing anything. Also, the policy will open a can of worms and might attract the wrath of social justice movements who will be against this and see it as a violation of human rights,” he said.  ​

RFA labour relations manager Magretia Brown-Engelbrecht said foreign truck drivers made up 10.7% of truck drivers on the road.

She said according to figures from the National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry, there are 63,468 drivers working in SA and 6,392 are foreigners.

“It is important to highlight the fact that not all trucks on the road fall ... [under]  the jurisdiction of the council. Only companies that transport goods for gain fall within its scope.”

Labour law expert Avi Niselow believes the government will give companies time to be compliant “so companies will start making sure that for any new employment, they employ locals. Another thing companies might do is if they employ many foreigners, they might start retrenching them.”

Petunia Lessing of the department of employment & labour said the department was gazetting the draft policy on the employment of foreigners and would communicate its progress “in due course”.

The department of home affairs failed to respond to questions. However, home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi told Newzroom Afrika earlier this month that the proposed law aims to “equalise” foreign-owned companies and locally owned businesses. He said this was not intended as an anti-immigrant measure. 

LONG HAUL TO JUSTICE

The cabinet last month approved the draft national labour migration policy and the draft Employment Services Amendment Bill for public comment. The proposed legislation is part of a plan to restrict foreign workers in SA. The tourism, hospitality, agriculture and construction sectors have been earmarked by the  government for quotas but the All Truck Drivers Forum - whose members have been accused of sparking violence during protests on national roads - says it will continue its campaign until the government bans all foreign truck drivers.