Employers have criticised proposed amendments to the National Road Traffic Regulations, saying they will disrupt labour and international relations, while the road freight and logistics sector says they will help prevent the illegal employment of foreigners in SA.
The proposed amendments state that a foreign driver who does not have a valid SA Professional Drivers Permit (PrDP) is not permitted to drive a vehicle registered in SA, but may only drive a vehicle registered in the country in which the PrDP was issued.
If the amendments are passed into law, foreign drivers currently employed in SA with PrDPs issued in their home countries will immediately become unemployable, said Gerhard Papenfus, CEO of the National Employers Association of SA (Neasa).
The amendments come almost six months after a spate of violence and killings that saw trucks driven by foreign drivers beaten and torched on SA’s roads, resulting in the loss of more than 200 lives in a sector that employs more than 300,000 people.
Tension had been brewing for a while in the R480bn road freight and logistics industry, with local drivers claiming that foreigners were taking jobs meant for them and that employers in the sector preferred employing cheaper foreign drivers at their expense.
The violence prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to assemble a team of ministers in November 2020 to look into the torching of trucks, which has cost the embattled economy an estimated R2bn.
Ramaphosa directed Mbalula, employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi, and home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi to look into the matter and submit a report to him.
Mbalula published the amendments in the Government Gazette for public comment, in April.
Gavin Kelly, CEO of the Road Freight Association (RFA), which represents employers in the road and freight logistics sector, said the requirement to hold a valid SA driver's licence, and PrDP where required for the relevant class of vehicle, “has been in legislation since 1993”.
“The allowance for a foreign driver to drive a foreign vehicle on our roads is an exception. This was purely aimed at import and export trips by foreign transporters into/through SA ports,” said Kelly.
Kelly said the RFA had interacted with Mbalula and suggested some possible actions to be taken in terms of ensuring “legislative prescription[s] are enforced”.
“The PrDP requirements for SA drivers and SA vehicles [are] one of these.” He said the RFA supported Mbalula’s endeavours to “prevent the illegal employment of foreigners”.
In objections sent to the transport department recently, Papenfus stated that the purpose of the amendments, ostensibly, “is to reduce the number of foreign drivers of vehicles in the SA transport industry”.
He said if the amendments were implemented, employers would immediately have to dismiss all foreign drivers currently lawfully in their employ, “based on operational requirements or incapacity, which may well be an infringement of the constitutional right to fair labour practices, which right also extends to foreigners”.
“These dismissals will come at a massive cost to employers in terms of retrenchment packages or awards for unfair dismissal,” said Papenfus, noting that many foreigners may well simply go through the process to acquire an SA driver’s licence, “thereby circumventing the regulation, which nullifies its use”.
He said neighbouring countries may adopt the same approach in retaliation and effectively ban SA drivers of foreign-owned vehicles. The amendments could also embolden “terror organisations as they will realise that government will accede to their demands as long as they are violent, cause damage and commit murder”.
“It is clear that these amendments will not achieve what they set out to do and will cause immeasurable harm to employers, the economy, collective bargaining and international relations,” said Papenfus.
International Cross-Border Traders Association (ICTA) president Denis Juru said: “We are worried about these amendments, they will collapse the economy of SA ... the government of SA is now scaring investors. Companies in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, all over Africa, if they want to come into SA, normally they bring one or two drivers.”
Truckers Association of SA president Mary Phadi did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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