Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, has appealed for disgruntled truck drivers to exercise patience over their concerns about foreign nationals. The Minister says the government is engaging with stakeholders in the logistics industry.
Motorists on parts of the N3 in KwaZulu-Natal and the N12 in the North West experienced a major traffic backlog this week due to truck drivers protesting over the employment of foreign nationals in the transport sector. Both roads have been reopened to traffic.
During a media briefing in Pretoria, Mbalula stated that his department understands the truck drivers’ plight and that they share the drivers’ concerns, which they will work to address.
“They must work with us because when they block the roads they are interrupting the road network and the economic activity in the country,” says Mbalula.
The Minister adds that he has met with various stakeholders, including the Departments of Labour and Employment and Home Affairs, to discuss the protesting truckers’ grievances, as well as the slow pace of implementing interventions agreed upon during previous engagements on the issues.
“We believe we are on the verge of concluding an agreement on the proposed interventions. The Tuesday discussions were on the back of previous engagements where the government took the stakeholders into confidence on the measures being implemented to address the issues previously raised,” the Minister explains.
Follow-up engagements are expected for this Sunday, 19 June.
This week, we continued our engagements with truck drivers until late on Tuesday, 14 June 2022 and we believe we are on the verge of concluding an agreement on the proposed interventions. pic.twitter.com/HCkqU5rCnw
— Department of Transport (@Dotransport) June 16, 2022
