BY NOTHANDO MAKHUBELA
EMALAHLENI: Minister of Employment and Labour in Mpumalanga, Thulas Nxesi visited and held a meeting with ATDFASA ( All Truck Drivers Foundations Alliance representing truck drivers and other stakeholders to discuss the concerns raised by truck drivers in giving more jobs to foreign nationals, on last Friday 26 March in Emalahleni.
The truck drivers in Mpumalanga have recently raised concerns with trucking industry for employing foreign national truck drivers with fraudulent documents such as Identity Document, Permits and drivers licences.
Truck drivers expressed their grievances to Minister Nxesi as they felt neglected and let down by government, as they deploy more foreign nationals because they are cheap and felt used by government during voting elections.
During the stakeholders meeting, speaking on behalf of the truck drivers, branch chairperson of a trucking company in Emalahleni, Thulani Ngwenya said “ The big challenge in South Africa as truck drivers is that the companies employ foreign nationals because they are cheap labour. As citizens of the country, we don’t participate in the economy of the country, it looks like our government only need us to vote. It is very painful to us,” said Ngwenya.
Minister Nxesi during stakeholder’s meeting indicated that since 2018 ,there have been ongoing discussions to influence policies to address some of the concerns raised.
“ In terms of our own Constitution and international conventions ,they also have rights. In whatever solution we are coming up with , we must also respect their rights , all of us have rights and obligations to deal with this matter,” said Minister Nxesi
Truck drivers also raised concerns about how the covid-19 had affected them.
Minister Nxesi said “We had to use a lot of our resources above R50 billion in order to deal with what we call a ‘temporary relief scheme ‘, slot of our inspectors got sick because they were working during that period,” he added.
