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EMASWATI TRUCK DRIVERS DICING WITH DEATH IN SA

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MBABANE – Despite being attacked and killed almost every day, local truck drivers working in South Africa (SA) will not quit their jobs.


They claim that the high level of unemployment in Eswatini has compelled them to search for jobs in SA, where most of them end up working even if they do not have work permits.


“We are aware that our employers are not concerned with our safety but our ability to make money for them. However, there is nothing we can do except to try and see how far fate takes us,” a truck driver from Eswatini, who is caught in the crossfire of the widespread violence targeted at foreign truck drivers in SA, said.


The violence is perpetrated by South Africans aligned to the vigilante All Truck Drivers Federation (ATDF) and allied sympathisers who feel emaSwati and other African drivers are employed in the trucking business at their expense.


Protect


The truck driver, who preferred we call him by his last name, Mkhonta, to protect him from the violence, said he had been employed by a truck owner for the past five years to ferry coal from various mines to coal fired power stations such as Matla Power Station situated near Kriel, on the Mpumalanga Highveld.
Other power stations supplied are in Hendrina, Arnot  and Kendall. However, Mkhonta says the employers are mainly South African owned companies subcontracted to ferry the coal to these power stations.


“Their interest is making sure that the coal reaches the power station. They claim to have patrolled the roads that we travel and that it is clear of the ATDF. However, sometimes we come across the ATDF members in the very roads that they claim to be safe for passage. These violent people know all these routes and prowl them in search of foreigners.”


Mkhonta said the only safe place is the inside of the power station where the coal is delivered.
“Usually trucks form a long queue to deliver the coal, sometimes even three kimoletres from the entrance to the power station. This is extremely unsafe for us because the truck has to be moving slowly towards the entrance.  The ATDF could target us easily in these long queues.”


He said when the violence is at its peak, the drivers are compelled to abandon the trucks and walk on foot to the power station just to ensure their safety.
The violence was at its peak just two weeks ago, where a truck driver was severely injured after people suspected to be aligned to the ATDF threw a petrol bomb onto the truck while it was in motion.


Injuries


A picture circulated am-ong the truck drivers social networks, shows the man having sustained serious injuries from the burns all over his body.
Mkhonta explained: “That driver was mistaken for a foreigner. It was later discovered that he is actually a South African. But the assailants were nowhere to be found to apologise for their actions.  They just threw the petrol bomb and sped off,” he said.


Later that day, social media had an incident of a truck driver who had been pulled out of his truck by the vigilantes and seriously assaulted, while being asked why they insisted on working in South Africa. His accent was Zimbabwean. The video shows the man sitting in a pool of dirty water looking beat-up and exhausted. Faces of those who had nabbed him and asking probing questions were not shown. The  audible conversation in the video is as follows:
Asker: Why were you running away?


Truck driver: I was afraid?
Asker: How many foreigners are employed there.
Truck driver: Most of them are foreigners there.
Another Asker: Angithi nithi anihambi lapha nina. Niyasjwayela nina sizonbonisa ke. (You people insist on saying you will never go back to your homes. You take us for granted. We will show you who we are).”


It was difficult to follow the trail of the video to know what eventually happened to the driver, as Mkhonta also said no other clip was revealed.
“I doubt if he is alive. These people are very violent,” Mkhonta said.
Mkhonta said his family was piling pressure on him to rather abandon his job and come back to Eswatini to avoid being killed.


“I have always told them that I am not where I am on my own volition. It’s the situation I was living in back home. It’s very sad to realise that you are aging without having accomplished anything in life. There are no job opportunities in Eswatini. For now this is the only means for us to survive. If I go back home I will have to be a burden to my family, without any means to put food on the table,”


Mkhonta said as foreign truck drivers, they were faced with the harsh reality to be either confronted by an ATDF or a Home Affairs official.


Charges


He said if the Home Affairs officials found that they do not have work permits, they booked them for being in the country illegally and also handed them over to the South African Police Service (SAPS) to prefer charges against them. He appealed to the governments of Eswatini and South Africa to come up with a law that would help issue work permits without stringent requirements.


Another truck driver said most truck owners preferred foreign truck drivers in South Africa because they were not unionised and can settle for far lesser salaries than those of their counterparts.


“South Africans can also not stand the work pressure involved in being a truck driver. Sometimes we go away from our families for two months. Sometimes I leave from Durban to deliver goods in Johannesburg. In Johannesburg, already there are goods that I need to take to Cape Town before I return to Durban. It gets worse if I have to also take goods to Botswana or Zimbabwe. You can imagine how much claim I am entitled to for sleeping out as well as overtime and hardship.”


He said some companies do pay well, but others take advantage of the foreigners and do not pay all the dues.
“But whichever way, it is still far better than staying home without employment,” he said.


Determined


He said the salaries of foreign truck drivers were determined by the truck owner, such that one owner could pay an average of E14 000 (US$1 000) per month, while another pays slightly above that.


“It is unheard of to come across a truck owner paying less than E7 000 (US$500) if the employee has worked uninterrupted the whole month,” he said.
The ATDF runs a closed Facebook page, in which only South African truck drivers are allowed membership. Swazi News tried to ask for membership but was denied on the basis of not meeting these requirements.

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