[LISTEN] ‘Anger over foreign drivers behind N3 truck protest’
The All Truck Driver’s Foundation believes local truck drivers are justified in their anger around the hiring of foreign nationals.
Hundreds of truck drivers blocked the N3 highway linking Gauteng with KwaZulu-Natal in the vicinity of Van Reenen’s Pass.
All lanes have been closed since Friday morning.
The organisation’s secretary Sifiso Nyathi says the protest was not organised by them, but by South African drivers.
He says the truck drivers are aggrieved over what they believe to be the priority treatment given to foreign nationals.
“Although we do not support the blocking of the routes, we support the course of the strike. The main issue is, it’s been about four years talking about one thing. We talk about this issue for employment of foreign nationals, here in South Africa, when it comes to truck drivers foreign nationals are the ones who are employed and South Africans are left behind.
“We tried to talk on the level of government but the government is good at talking and is not good at decisive action. The driving truck is not a scare skill or shortage of skills, we have thousands of truck drivers who are sitting at home and not employed.”
Nyathi says the hurdles South African drivers are expected to jump are unfair.
“Some employers, you qualify to drive a truck if you are a foreign national, they don’t want any papers or anything but when it comes to South Africans they want five years’ experience, they want a lot of papers.”
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