adminThupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
No attacks on Zimbabwean drivers in xenophobic action in South Africa have been reported to the Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria.
South Africa’s All Drivers Foundation has this week been threatening violence against migrant commercial truck drivers whom they claim of taking their jobs.
The Herald understands that most of those causing chaos, mostly on the N1, N3, N4, N12, in Gauteng and in Durban, are mere criminals seeking to loot from commercial trucks.
In some cases, the local drivers are targeting huge transporters they believe are paying living salaries to the foreign drivers and there are reports that the South Africans are targeting trucks with automatic transmissions, which they can drive, rather than those with manual transmissions.
Zimbabwe’s envoy to Pretoria Mr David Hamadziripi yesterday said he had no reports of Zimbabweans attacked.
Security authorities in South Africa have since warned the hoodlums planning violence on major roads with the country’s national police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo saying the National Joint Operational and Intelligence were taking action and would not tolerate any forms of intimidation against truck drivers.
“We will continue applying fundamental policing principles, guided by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the Gatherings Act 1993 as well the current state-of-disaster regulations.
“Law enforcement will ensure that there are no criminal activities and that the lives of law-abiding citizens are not put in danger,” said Brig Naidoo. An average of 1000 commercial trucks are moving in both directions daily through Beitbridge Border Post with at lest half on routes to and from Zambia, Malawi, Angola, Tanzania and DRC.
South Africa has a huge market share within SADC and exports mostly groceries, retail, medication and mining consumables to most countries.
Most truck drivers who arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday from South Africa said they were safe despite the environment being tense
“I left Gauteng on the day the chaos started, those causing trouble are mostly in Johannesburg and Durban. However, none of my workmates have been affected and I hope authorities will address the situation before it goes out of hand,”said Mr Thomas Manzala a Zambian driver.
According to, Mr Reason Moyo, a Zimbabwean driver, the most affected roads where the N1, N3 an N12.
Another Zimbabwean who preferred anonymity said the chaos on the road was being perpetrated by thugs and not drivers. “At one company in River North, we are told that at least 30 local drivers failed the road test and they eventually gave in to the hiring of 15 Zimbabweans who had passed.
“Those local drivers making noise are targeting employees of big companies and most of them fail to drive manually operated trucks,” said the driver.
One of South Africa’s major opposition political parties, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has since criticised the attack on migrant truck drivers.
In a statement on Tuesday, it said: “The truck driving industry, by its very nature, is bound to be characterized by people of different nationalities. It is an industry that conducts cross-border trade of goods across the continent and as a result, will be comprised of Africans from different nations.
“To demand that Africans be fired on the basis of their nationality by truck companies is to jeopardise inter-continental trade and place the South African trucking industry at risk as other nations will respond with the same attitude when South African truck drivers enter their nations. South Africa cannot survive with a truck industry that operates inside the country only or solely with South African truck drivers”.
Online Reporter