Truck drivers offer 'rare skills', government told as it deals with fiery protests

Government has vowed to explore the question of whether certain truck-driving positions require expertise that could be deemed "rare or scarce" in South Africa.

This was revealed following a meeting of representatives of truck owners and ministers of police, Bheki Cele, home affairs, Siyabonga Cwele, and labour, Mildred Oliphant, in Durban on Wednesday. 

The "robust" meeting took place at the Durban Central Police Station following a spate of volatile protests in which trucks were burnt on the N3 freeway in KwaZulu-Natal, affecting thousands of motorists.

The protests stemmed from the alleged hiring of foreign drivers in the transport industry.

Members of the Positive Freight Solutions Forum (PFSF), which represents the majority of the logistics sector in greater KwaZulu-Natal, argued that certain truck driving positions required experience and a "rare set of skills" that not many South Africans possess, thus creating a gap in the market for foreigners. 

Logistics stakeholder Pria Hassan, of PFSF, said the industry would be investing it's money and resources into proper facilities to train locals for the rare skills required in the sector. 

"As industry we will acknowledge that we do change our regime, that we spend time and money educating our people, so we are undertaking to do that. We will spend time teaching our drivers the rare skills in terms of hazardous cargo movement. In some sectors the reality is that there are no rare skills to move hazardous cargo - we have looked, we have searched. Not all of us employ foreign drivers ... Some of them don't employ foreign drivers at all, yet they're still attacked," she said. 

Cwele said exploring the aspect of rare skills in the trucking industry would be one of government's main objectives in addressing the issue. 

"Our primary focus is that before you employ a foreign national you must make sure that it is a rare skill or scarce skill. Is truck driving a scarce skill? We would have to verify that. We'll work from home affairs with labour to check how many truck drivers we have with those skills.

"The issue of experience was raised, but it is not a major requirement in terms of the legislation. So it boils down to the aspect of verification and we've agreed with the industry that we'll do that verification. They'll bring their stats and we'll bring our stats, and will make sure that ... those skills are really rare."

Cwele said members of the tucking industry needed to work with government if they felt there was a shortage of South Africans with the necessary skills.

"Scarce skills, you don't just declare it yourself, it's not the employer that can declare that either. If an employer feels that he doesn't have certain people with these types of skills, he must then go to the Department of Labour, apply for someone (foreigner) with such a skill and labour will process it.

"Once labour has processed it they bring it to us as home affairs and then we issue our permit. So it will be a scarce skill (permit) not a general work permit. There's no such thing as a general work permit. If we are able to navigate this together then we can stop this kind of issue from reoccurring," said Cwele. 

Meanwhile, Cele said government would continue with a thorough verification process to determine how many foreigners compared to South Africans were employed in the trucking industry.

"The immediate thing, though, is that we stop the violence. But the verification process is one area we need to look into because the question was raised, how many foreign drivers? Nobody knows. How many South African drivers? Nobody knows. So we said let's do the verification and then we'll talk about the figures, and if there are still shortages, all will be responsible to improve.

"I don't think it would be fair for people to say that there is a shortage of drivers when we have not verified that yet. As Dr Cwele has said, there are laws that will govern the applications to have foreign nationals employed. Minister Oliphant indicated that there has been not one application that has come through," he said. 

Aven Naidu, of PFSF, denounced allegations that the trucking industry employed foreigners as a means of cheap labour. 

"We want to clarify the misconception that ... we have that the trucking industry employs foreign nationals due to cheap labour. We are governed by the National Road Freight Bargaining Council that constantly visit out premises and who actually gazettes the amounts that are paid and the salaries that are allowed to be paid or required to be paid to these foreign nationals.

"We find that in South Africa an experienced truck driver is indeed a scarce skill and as such there is now a gap for the foreign nationals to be employed, but they are fully legal. Our companies are fully compliant and as such ... that is why they have met the requirements to be employed by our companies," he said. 

Kaunda said the national department of transport was investigating 47 companies nationally following a spate of transport-related protests in 2018 and this year.

"Since the drivers raised their concerns about foreign nationals that are employed by companies, they did not end there. They gave us the list of companies which they alleged are employing foreigners. That list entailed about 47 companies."

Kaunda said the departments of labour, home affairs, the police and RTI conducted inspections at those companies.

"From the exercise they conducted there were companies that were found (to not be following the law). Some of them received some fines and that process is still ongoing," said Kaunda. 

Hassan emphaised that the losses to the trucking industry due to volatile protest action could be quantified not just to our economy, but to the average consumer, who would now be facing huge increases in the cost of general goods.

"We have suggested to our minister to please engage in more visible policing, to deploy more resources and, if that is not readily available, than as a sector we are happy to engage in private security companies to assist us in protecting not just our assets, but our people. If our sector is not given the support needed, both by the people and by government, the result is not that we would suffer as owners of any institution, the result is that the ordinary person that is facing poverty will face complete eradication because they will not be able to afford the goods that we carry to the doors of the people."

She appealed to members of the trucking industry and the public to come forward and be part of the discussion.

"If you know who is involved ... please come forward and talk to us. We want to resolve this. We want to work with our communities," said Hassan.