KZN Premier urges truck owners to prioritise employment of SA drivers

KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Sihle Zikalala has urged truck owners to prioritise South African drivers for employment.

Zikalala addressed the media at the eThekwini Disaster Center on Sunday where he gave an update on the truck crisis that has plagued the province.

Over the past weeks, there have been a number of trucks that were burned. These incidents culminated with an anti-foreign protest by unemployed, disgruntled truck drivers in Durban last week.

Zikalala said the provincial government held an emergency stakeholder meeting with representatives from the truck owners industry and truck drivers.

“We reached important commitments which we believe that if they are implemented successfully will guarantee peace and stability in this all-important industry,” he said.

Those commitments, among others, include:

• The prioritisation of SA drivers over foreign ones.
• A sting operation along the major highways to target unregistered truck drivers,
• The creation of 400 news jobs which will hire drivers from a newly established database of qualified SA drivers.

“We agree that these are stop-gap measures. The long-term solution includes effecting appropriate amendments to the law,” said Zikalala.

“Therefore, our proposals to national government include speeding up the review of the scarce skills policy to clarify the contentious question of the employment of foreign nationals in low-skill sectors.”