BORDER SHUTDOWN NEXT MONTH

MBABANE – Business is expected to come to a standstill on September 9, as South African truck drivers have threatened to stage a blockade in all ports of entry into the republic.

The kingdom of Eswatini has about eight ports of entry connecting to South Africa, namely; Ngwenya, Matsamo, Mahamba, Lavumisa, Sicunusa, Mananga, Sandlane and Bulembu.

African Freedom Revolution has threatened a total shutdown at the various borders connecting to South Africa and expects no movement of local and long distance, light or heavy duty trucks. During the shutdown, no foreign trucks would be allowed to drive across to South Africa while none would be allowed to leave the republic, according to the organisation.

This spells trouble for the kingdom as it does a lot of trade with the neighbouring republic in terms of exports and imports.
President of the African Freedom Revolution, Bishop Timothy Bheki Ngcobo, confirmed the blockade, which he said would continue until December.
Ngcobo said the aim of the border blockade was to wipe out foreign nationals in their cities, which they had dominated.

Operate

These will include truck drivers and those who operate small businesses within the cities in the republic. He said on Friday, they had a march in Varelum, which is one of their Metro Cities in Durban, and closed the entire city in protest against the foreign nationals.
“All the shops in Varelum were closed which proved to us that all those shops were operated by foreigners.”

Ngcobo said they wanted to prove who the owners of the shops were, hence they discovered they were owned by foreigners because they closed down during the march. Further, he said they could not afford to have a country which did not have proper controls at entry points. He said their government had failed them in that regard, which was why they were standing up against seeing the country being taken over by foreign nationals.

“We are standing up for our rights as SA nationals,” he said. Ngcobo said at the present moment, SA nationals were without jobs which have been taken over by foreigners who were running small retail businesses. He said they were faced with job scarcity and the unemployment rate had also increased from 29 to 30 per cent.

According to Ngcobo, foreigners who had taken the jobs were allegedly not paying taxes in SA but only conducted trade. “These businesses do not even allow us to swipe bank cards in their shops as they demand cash,” said Ngcobo.

On the issue of truck wars, he said truck owners preferred employing foreigners because they were not unionised and did not have a bargaining power over salaries. By employing the foreign nationals, Ngcobo said employers were benefitting and making huge profits, hence SA nationals ended up without jobs.
He said they understood the consequences of the blockade and were not in a position to be considerate on behalf of business owners and truck owners as they also disregarded them.

Meanwhile, he said their country had enough resources to run its economy accordingly. Ngcobo said the way in which foreigners had come in had damaged the entire country, including foreign pastors who had dominated the churches and preaching the gospel of prosperity to gain money.  

Eswatini Drivers Association Technical Advisor Vama Jele said they were engaged by the SA Government last week, together with the All Truck Drivers Association (ATDF), which was against the employment of foreign drivers. Jele said the meeting was held in Durban and Eswatini was not the problem but was caught in between, as the ATDF was against drivers from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana.

Political

He said both SA and Eswatini needed to address the matter in a ‘polite’ political manner, especially because the countries signed bilateral agreements. Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Thulani Mkhaliphi said they have not heard anything about the blockade yet.

However, Mkhaliphi said they were aware that there was a meeting held by some truck drivers association in Durban last week. The PS said they have not had the chance to engage the SA Government on the position of local truck drivers to receive proper documentation. He said SA government had been engaged in other State duties and they did not get the chance to engage with them.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: