The Road Freight Association has warned that Durban businesses paying private security teams to guard the N2 and N3 could lead to more volatility.
Fed up with debilitating truck blockades on major freeways, some companies are going this route.
It’s a move prompted by last week’s protest action on the N3, an important corridor between Johannesburg and Durban, where truckers parked their vehicles, causing major traffic backlogs, severe delays in the delivery of goods and the loss of more than R300m.
Their main gripe, they say, is the employment of foreign drivers by transporters.
Gavin Kelly, Road Freight Association CEO, said: “It’s very worrying that private companies need to resort to hiring their own security, especially in the manner in which they are ... having well-armed security forces to ensure they can operate their businesses.
“One understands why they are doing it, but it is not a good thing. That role really rests with the police, whether we like that or not.
“If something happens and these private security firms take action, what are they going to do?
“Once the first shot is fired that is going to escalate into something that is going to be very difficult to stop. If you’re armed to the teeth and they are armed to the teeth that will escalate. One has to call for restraint. The trucker protests are only about foreign individuals and hopefully those blockades have stopped.
“But what happens when there is a service delivery protest that has nothing to do with the trucking industry?” Kelly asked.
The spokesperson of KZN VIP Protection, one of the companies providing security, said “certain business entities” hired private firms to ensure the smooth transporting of goods and security of their drivers.
He said he could not reveal the identity of his clients because of safety concerns.
This move comes as government is finalising a policy to help regulate the extent to which foreigners can be employed in SA.
Through proposed legislation, the state plans to introduce quotas on the number of documented foreigners with work visas who can be employed in major economic sectors.
Naidoo said the private sector has deployed specialised security forces along the N3 on specific days to ensure the smooth flow of operations, with no delays or disruptions.
Anti-riot teams have been deployed to the Mariannhill and Mooi River tolls on the N3, as well as on the N2 between Phoenix and Umhlanga, and in Prospecton, south of Durban, he said.
“Police have formed a partnership with security companies. There are security companies that have the necessary equipment and training to prevent looting.”
Last week the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry condemned the truck blockades, saying they were an act of “economic sabotage”.
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