Border post disruption expected

Johannesburg - South Africa’s road transport industry is nervous about delays at border posts following tighter rules for truck drivers.

From midnight on June 30 foreign truck drivers working for South African transport companies will require a work permit to enter the country.

For the past 15 years or so a 30-day visitor’s visa has been sufficient.

If trucks are forced to a standstill at the country's border posts this will have a huge impact on trade within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

On Wednesday more than 50 transport companies representing about 1 500 foreign truck drivers turned to the north Gauteng High Court in Pretoria with an urgent application to have the decision set aside. The matter is to be heard on Thursday.

From the beginning of the year the department of home affairs has indicated that it will be tightening the rules. But it has not processed a single application for a work permit since February, says Global Migration managing director Leon Isaacson.

His company is trying to comply with the rules, but home affairs does not have the capacity to render assistance. Although accurate statistics on the number of foreign drivers are not available because they have not been registered for the past 10 years, the number is estimated at about 2 000 out of a workforce of some 15 000 to 20 000.

Many of the foreign drivers work for multinational companies within SADC, explains Isaacson.

Gavin Kelly, technical and operations manager at the Road Freight Association (RFA), says there is also a lack of clarity as to whether foreign drivers operating South African-registered rental trucks also require work permits.

It is also unclear how long it will take for drivers to eventually receive the necessary permits. Some of the requirements include companies having to prove that South African workers are unavailable to do the work.

What the company does know, said Kelly, is that everything cannot be done by July 1, and goods could pile up at border posts.

The work permit decision, which can involve companies in huge costs, runs counter to the government's support for  closer regional integration and the removal of trading obstacles.

This is a highly complex trade situation. There are a great number of goods going from South Africa to the rest of SADC, or from SADC to South African ports.

What would happen if other countries started to impose the same rules on South African drivers, asks Isaacson.

Some 1 500 trucks pass through Beit Bridge, South Africa's busiest border post, every day.

Kelly says that although foreign drivers are sometimes employed because they are very familiar with neighbouring countries, this remains a specialist market.

In most instances South African companies use foreign drivers because they accept lower wages.

Isaacson says there are also many South African drivers who are unwilling to undertake the long-distance journeys to the rest of the continent because they regard the trips as dangerous and they cannot speak the local languages.

- Sake24.com

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