#Letter: Close the borders

Shayamoya resident Everton Mfitshi writes:

This week I would like to comment on the issue of local truck drivers protesting against foreign drivers in South Africa.

If you look carefully, you will see that this industry is dominated by foreign truck drivers, which is unfair.

Most truck companies in South Africa only hire foreigners.

I don’t know whether there is a good reason for this, perhaps they are good drivers, but according to my knowledge they are the ones who cause the most accidents in our country.

Let’s look at the accident that claimed more than 30 lives in Pinetown. That driver was from Swaziland.

Our brothers and sisters have got licenses and are unemployed.

I am not saying people must burn trucks, but really, companies hiring foreigners in this industry must be held responsible regarding this unrest.

If, for instance, you go to UK looking for a driver’s job, they won’t allow you into the country simply because there are so many locals who are looking for the same job.

If you go to the US looking for cleaner’s job, they won’t allow you in for the same reason.

They will only allow you to come to their country if you have scarce skill.

Can someone tell me which country across the globe has foreigners dominating other than here in South Africa?

In fact, foreign people are in every industry here in our country.

Go to La Lucia Mall, Game City and all the others, and foreigners are the ones who are the security guards.

Go to restaurants, bars and so on, they are everywhere and this is really unfair.

We really need to act like European people who love their country and love our country as well.

We really need to protect our country by closing our borders. Government needs to focus on this issue, otherwise we are going to have unrest for the rest of our lives.

Editor Lesley Naudé replies:

In November last year amid violent protest action, the All Truck Drivers Foundation (ATDF) claimed that 80% of truck drivers employed by SA companies were foreign nationals.

However, The National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry found that the industry employed 44 021 local truck drivers and 6 756 foreigners, which equates to 84.66% locals and 15.34% foreigners.

Interestingly, the US is accepting foreigners to fill truck driver posts.

The shortage of truck drivers is so bad that US ports are backlogged, primarily because there are too few trucks and drivers to pick up cargo.

But according to Time magazine, the country has no shortage of people who want to get into truck driving, but poor pay and horrible working conditions means an exceptionally high turnover of drivers.

Basically, Americans don’t want the job. Perhaps we have a similar problem here?

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