Truckers' stranglehold

Fuel, food and cash are running short as the transport drivers' strike begins to bite.

With deliveries of cash and commodities being made at night to evade strikers and their intimidation, and car manufacturing grinding to a near halt, businesses are frantically trying to avoid empty shelves, restaurant tables, tills and ATMs.

Entering the second week of the countrywide strike, thousands of truck drivers are demanding a 12.5% wage increase. The Road Freight Employers' Association is offering 8.5%.

The SA Petroleum Industry Association said it had implemented contingency plans to ensure that fuel pumps did not run dry. The association's executive director, Avhapfani Tshifularo, said that nevertheless there were delays in the delivery of fuel.

"Though some filling stations have run dry, there is no need for the public to be concerned," he said.

Tshifularo confirmed reports of intimidation.

The Consumer Goods Council of SA said the strike was being felt throughout the wholesale and retail sectors, with stocks running low.

CEO Gwarega Mangozhe said the shortage of goods had compromised supply chains and alternative supplies were being sourced.

Mangozhe said the strike was taking place at a critical time when retailers needed to build up stock for the festive season.

Restaurant Association of SA spokesman Wendy Alberts said: "Restaurants around the country are experiencing shortages."

The situation would have been more serious if restaurants had not stocked up when talk of the strike surfaced, she said.

A cash-in-transit industry source said the violence, and the difficulty of the wage negotiations, were unprecedented. Blaming the Marikana mine violence for the increase in intimidation, he said the industry had finally reached a settlement.

"This was achieved on Saturday, outside the collective bargaining process."

The settlement, however, might be undone. Reports have emerged that workers are now demanding a 9.9% increase.

Protea Coin's chief operations officer, Waal de Waal, said that since Sunday the company had been fully operational.

Cash-in-transit workers have returned to work but the strike has spread to the motor industry. Workers failed to return to work for a third consecutive day at Toyota's Prospecton, Durban, plant yesterday.

Vehicle manufacturers are struggling to keep their production lines running.

"The plant is standing completely still," Toyota spokesman Leo Kok said, describing the strike as "mass absenteeism".

Toyota is this country's biggest manufacturer of motor vehicles.

Though the reasons for the vehicle industry strike are not conclusively known, it appears that the dispute relates to a R3.22 an hour premium paid to "some skilled workers".

"We are in discussions with the union," Kok said.

Other vehicle manufacturers hit by the truck drivers' strike, include BMW, which reported "losing 30 cars last week" when axles were not delivered to the company's Rosslyn factory near Pretoria.

Spokesman Guy Kilfoil said: "The bigger concern is getting cars to the dealers."

Angered by the slow pace of wage negotiations, truck drivers have become increasingly violent, torching and stoning the vehicles of non-strikers. - Additional reporting I-Net Bridge