Truck drivers vow to shut down SA: Protest bosses favouring foreigners

Truck drivers vow to shut down SA: Protest bosses favouring foreigners

- Truck drivers have threatened to shut South Africa down on Tuesday

- The sector is protesting the employment of foreign nationals for lower wages

- This comes as South Africa experiences the highest rate of unemployment experienced in years

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Truck operators have issued a threat to shut down the entire country on Tuesday in protest of a long-standing issue in the industry.

The sector is protesting against the widespread employment of foreign nationals in most sectors of the economy for far lower wages than their local counterparts.

The industry has called for the government to intervene in this issue at a time where millions of South Africans are facing crippling unemployment.

eNCA spoke to All Truck Drivers Forum spokesperson Michael Masimini, who said that employers are violating the Employment Services and Immigrant Act at a time when jobs are scarce:

"This is not only the ATDF strike - this is national. We are engaging in this peaceful strike as we try to draw attention from our government."
Truck drivers vow to shutdown SA: Protest bosses favouring foreigners
Citizens taking part in an unemployment protest
Source: Depositphotos

READ ALSO: Minister denies xenophobia: Quotas on the cards for foreign employees

Briefly.co.za reported that Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi had announced that the government is seeking to instate a quota system, effectively limiting the number of foreign nationals businesses in different sectors is legally allowed to employ.

Nxesi had denied accusations of xenophobia following this announcement, adamant that the policy was proposed to protect South Africans from being excluded from the job market:

"This is not a new thing. It happens all over the world. It is part of labour market employment policies. We think that employment policy will go a long way in addressing the number of challenges we have in the labour market."

Nxesi was adamant that unemployed citizens couldn't be left behind by the state in favour of allowing non-citizens to obtain work without restriction:

"You can't sit with millions of unemployed South Africans and in certain industries you just allow non-South Africans to be employed without any regulation," the minister said in a virtual meeting of parliament's two labour committees.

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Source: Briefly News

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