Kaya 959 Reporter
On Friday, December 3rd, hundreds of truck drivers staged a massive blockade on national routes between the Durban harbour and along the N3 Van Reenen’s Pass as part of an ongoing dispute against the employment of foreign truck drivers.
Gavin Kelly, the chief executive of the Road Freight Association, says the constant road blockages were ruining South Africa’s reputation on the continent.
He said the country is fast losing any respect as a safe, efficient and desirable route for the movement of goods out of, and into, Africa – and even South Africa.
What are some of the issues?
Marè spoke about how the issues by truck drivers on the N3 route are going to take time to resolve, and that, there continues to be these blockages and shutdowns by rouge elements who want to speed up the changes.
Economic impact of the strike
Marè said Friday’s blockade, which lasted several hours, follows an incident in October when the N3 was blocked by truckers who said they were calling for reform in the industry, including an end to the hiring of foreign truck drivers.
Delays and protests in the N3 route have a devastating impact on the economy, particularly in the SADEC region, says Marè.
“South Africa is an import and export hub of sub-saharan Africa, there is no way we can say no one can take goods through South Africa. The only thing we are going to force is further economic shutdown.”
“Our neighboring countries will start building hombres and import stations, we will loose that revenue on our economy.”
