Attack on trucks bad for economy and price of goods

The attack on trucks will have far-reaching consequences which include denting investor confidence and generating fear among the public.

This is according to the University of SA’s (Unisa’s) professor Anthoni van Nieuwkerk after five more trucks were torched on the N4 route near Waterval Boven yesterday morning.

It is alleged that two vehicles stopped the trucks and instructed the drivers to get out of the trucks, before setting them alight.

“We don’t know the motive for that... for now, we have not arrested anyone,” said Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brig Selvy Mohlala.

Mohlala told Sowetan that they could not rule out the possibility of the attacks being coordinated but that officers would ensure visibility on the roads.

The incident comes hours after six trucks were set alight on the N3 at Van Reenen’s Pass on Sunday morning.

Police minister Bheki Cele said one of the trucks in the queue at the N3 Concession Plaza had come under attack by occupants of a white vehicle who had forced it to a stop, opened fire on it, and then burnt it.

Van Nieuwkerk believes that the attack on trucks would make goods and services more expensive.

“The root of the problem is not a security problem, it is the employment practices of the transport industry that is creating more problems.

“South African workers [drivers] are saying if employers hire foreign nationals without appropriate documentation – permits, driver’s licences, – if they use foreigners as cheap labour to move goods across the country then there is going to be a problem. You might even say this is the private sector causing problems for the state which the state now has to solve by putting security in place.”

Another expert, Louis Mkhethoni, the national chairperson of the Security Association of SA (Sasa), said the government should have come up with plans to ensure that trucks were not attacked.

“We know that there is a problem within the trucking sector and the trucks are logistics carrying all commodities and driving the economy. We don’t have railway lines any longer, so what we depend on to transport from one place to the next are trucks,” he said.

“I don’t see why the government does not give it a priority. We seem to be reactive, when such attacks happen, we say we are going to plan and once things start relaxing then we forget about the plans, and we forget about execution.

“We are always caught napping with our pants down and it is costing a lot of stress on our economy as we try to revive it.”

Mkhethoni also added that the government was also “very good at putting pen on paper but when it comes to execution there is nothing”.

In June last year, government and various organisations signed a task team implementation plan document that would have ensured minimal employment of foreigners as truck drivers by introducing stricter laws around visa, drivers’ licence requirement among other things.

However, according to the All Truck Drivers Forum and Allied SA ATDF ASA secretary Sifiso Nyathi nothing had been implemented.

“We addressed these issues with the government and it was never sorted out. It is just people talking but nothing is done, companies are still employing foreign nationals.”

Nyathi said he knew nothing about the latest truck attacks, adding that whenever there was an attack the government would blame his forum.

Part of what is contained in the document which Sowetan has seen was the confirmation of driving licences and professional driving permits of foreign drivers, identifying foreign driving licences that were invalid and that all trucks transporting goods for gain or on behalf of the third party must register with the bargaining council.

When approached for comment on how far the department of transport had gone in implementing the plan, spokesperson Collen Msibi could only say: “The department continues to work through the task team appointed by the inter-ministerial committee and the industry to find solutions to address the challenges in the trucking and freight industry. We are on course in terms of finding those solutions as a collective.”