Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
truck driverslatest news & developments
Trucks were torched on the N2, N3 and N4 highways last week.
DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND LABOUR

Truck drivers lament government’s slow moves to fix sector

The transport department says it is working on an 11-point plan to clean up the logistics industry and force businesses to comply with laws

  • Lyse Comins
4 min read
Reeling: Volunteers and workers clean up the looted Bara Mall in Soweto. The destruction and theft in the country is a more than R50-million blow to the already struggling economy. (Lucas Sola/AFP)
BARRICADE

South Africa’s growing social unrest proving as big a threat to growth

Third quarter GDP numbers have interrupted a four quarter economic growth streak because of the July unrest.

  • Anathi Madubela
5 min read
A general view of burnt out goods after a Pick n Pay truck was torched along the N1 in Klipheuwel on July 08, 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa. It is reported that both the N7 and N1 were affected by protests after a nationwide call for truck drivers to stop operating to protest the employment of foreign drivers. The truck drivers also threatened to shut down the whole country. (Photo by Jacques Stander/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
DOCUMENTATION

Brakes put on foreign truck drivers

New legislation aims to protect local jobs in the transport sector amid questions as to whether SA has enough willing and skilled drivers

  • Anathi Madubela
5 min read
Aerial view of a truck passing in the Konso hills and terraces, Omo Valley, Konso, Ethiopia on March 10, 2017 in Konso, Ethiopia. (Eric Lafforgue/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty Images)
ARUSHA

On the road with East African truck drivers

In East Africa, truck drivers are being attacked, robbed and used as diplomatic footballs

  • Simon Mkina
  • David Mono Danga
  • Godfrey Kimono
6 min read
Board members of the Highway Junction Truck Stop Mdumiseni Mabaso
HARRISMITH HIGHWAY JUNCTION TRUCK STOP

Transport retirement fund making its mark

The fund brings stability to people’s lives and to help gear the country and its people for a brighter future

  • Rebecca Haynes
5 min read
Picturesque view of the Highway Junction Truck Stop in Harrismith. (Photo: Anita Heyl)
ADVERTORIAL SUPPLEMENT

Africa’s largest truck stop

The Harrismith Highway Junction Truck Stop is designed to give truck drivers a well-earned rest, for the safety of all road users

  • Advertorial Supplement
6 min read
Road to hell: More than a thousand trucks have been destroyed in the past year by people wanting to push foreign drivers out of their jobs. (Xinhua/Photoshot/NurPhoto/AFP)
COUNTRY

Foreign truck drivers terrified in SA

Many of them are intimidated by mobs demanding keys and identity documents

  • Thando Maeko
8 min read
The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) has distanced itself from ongoing strikes in the sector as well as the attacks on foreign truck drivers
KWAZULU NATAL

Violence exacts huge toll on lives and a R1bn loss in the freight sector

The Road Freight Association puts the cost of the ongoing attacks on trucks at about R1.2-billion with 1 200 vehicles and cargo destroyed

  • Thando Maeko
3 min read
Mdumisani Mabaso. (Photo: Clinton Friedman)
HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Best practices abound in transport sector

The Transport Sector Retirement Fund uses cellphone technology to regularly engage, inform and educate its members

  • Alf James
7 min read
Lawyers representing African drivers wrote to VDM, demanding that the company recalculate the payment of all employees — citing the discrepancy between the pay of white drivers and that of their clients (Delwyn Verasamy, M&G)
EQUALITY COURT

Trucking company accused of racial wage rigging

African drivers are allegedly being paid less than their white and coloured counterparts

  • Athandiwe Saba
4 min read
Desperation: Poverty drives Malawi sex workers
HIV

On the road: Lifeline for sex workers and truck drivers emerges along trade route

A chain of clinics is helping to save lives on Malawi’s border with Mozambique.

  • Ina Skosana
6 min read
BARBARA HOGAN

Letters to the editor: March 24 to 31 2016

Readers write in about capitalism, and owner-drivers.

  • Letters
5 min read
TRUCK DRIVERS

Adventures of the men who man the 16-wheelers

Some stories of the road are not what one would expect.

  • Staff Reporter
2 min read
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Pinetown truck driver sentenced to eight years and 10 months

Sanele Goodness May pleaded guilty to: culpable homicide, fraud, entering SA illegally, being in possession of fake licences and two other charges.

  • Sapa
4 min read
Look ma, no hands! (Photo Archive)
JOHANN BARNARD

Look ma, no hands!

Truck drivers and chauffeurs possibly face the chop thanks to advancements in technology.

  • Johann Barnard
3 min read
In this week’s Weekend 101
JACOB ZUMA

Weekend 101: Sparkly vampires and Mangaung

In this week’s Weekend 101, the race for Mangaung becomes more interesting, the Spear is declassified and Twilight comes to town.

  • Staff Reporter
1 min read
Truck drivers doing their jobs face the risk of violence from striking colleagues.
CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE UNIONS

Nation under pressure as truck strike builds

The truck drivers’ strike enters its fourth week and the transport industry has been stretched – but not yet to breaking point.

  • Faeeza Ballim
6 min read
The Pimples kids get their toys thrown out of the cot by truckers taking part in the transport strike.
PIMPLES

Pimples: From toys to toyi toying

The Pimples kids get their toys thrown out of the cot by truckers taking part in the transport strike.

  • Pimples
1 min read
JUNE DUBE

Satawu agrees to wage deal

Satawu has agreed to a wage deal, putting an end to the week-long road freight sector strike, it said on Monday.

  • Staff Reporter
1 min read
Cosatu backs striking truck drivers
CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE UNIONS

Cosatu backs striking truck drivers

Cosatu will "mobilise solidarity support" for the striking road freight sector should its wage demands not be met, the federation said on Wednesday.

  • Staff Reporter
2 min read