Question NW1909 to the Minister of Transport
03 September 2020 - NW1909
Hunsinger, Mr CH to ask the Minister of Transport
(1)What number of truck companies are (a) part of the Bargaining Council and (b) not part of the Bargaining Council; (2) whether his department has conducted any studies to determine what number of truck companies in the road freight industry employed (a) documented and (b) undocumented foreign nationals as truck drivers in the past three financial years; if not, does his department intend to conduct such studies; if so, what number of (i) documented and (ii) undocumented foreign nationals have been found to be employed by truck companies in the road freight sector in the specified period; (3) whether his department has taken any steps against any truck company for illegally employing undocumented foreign nationals as truck drivers; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?NW2424E
Reply:
1. The information sourced from the Bargaining Council states that are (a) 3121 truck companies that are currently registered with the Bargaining Council. (b) the number of truck companies not part of the Bargaining Council remains unknown as the it (Bargaining Council)keeps information on companies that are registered within its scope. It must be noted the Bargaining Council for Road Freight and Logistics has jurisdiction only on truck companies that fall within its scope, associated for transporting of goods for hire or reward
2. The Department of Transport has not conducted any study in this regard. It must be stated that this is purely a labour matter and the Department of Employment and Labour has since taken the lead in addressing this issue so much so that the Department of Transport forms part of an Interministerial Committee appointed by Cabinet as per its decision of 15 July 2020, copy of which has been attached hereto for ease of reference.
3. On an ongoing basisan integrated and multidisciplinary Joint Law Enforcements and Compliance Inspections were conducted between 01 September 2019 to 31 March 2020 by the responsible Law Enforcement Teams from SAPA, Dept. of Employment and Labour, Home Affairs and Traffic Authorities with the following outcomes:
In KZN 26 roadblocks were conducted;
23 Employers were charged;
262 undocumented truck drivers were charged; and
35 inspections at trucking companies were conducted.
The above Joint Law Enforcements and Compliance Inspections were conducted by Department Home Affairs; Department of Employment and Labour; Traffic Authorities, South African Police Service; Metro Police and the Bargaining Council.