KZN government cracks down on illegal foreign drivers

Source: IOL, 06/10/2018

Transport MEC Mxolisi Kaunda and Mayor Zandile Gumede talk to Metro
Police officers during the launch of Transport Month in the city
yesterday. Zanele Zulu African News Agency (ANA)
Durban - Forty-seven companies that hire an excessive number of
foreign nationals have been identified by the Transport Department and
are being dealt with.
This was according to Transport MEC Mxolisi Kaunda at the launch of
Transport Month in the city.
He said the department had visited some of these companies and would
visit others soon. Kaunda said labour law stipulated that employers
could import skills not available in the country.
“What we found is that many companies did this without authorisation
from the Department of Labour,” he said.
The Daily News reported earlier this year that 62 truck drivers were
arrested for blockading the N3 between Durban and Johannesburg,
complaining about companies hiring foreigners as truck drivers.
A special operation was in the pipeline where the Transport, Labour
and Home Affairs departments would work together in swooping on truck
operators who hire an excessive number of foreigners, said Kaunda.
Train violence was another issue being addressed. Kaunda admitted
there was a problem with ageing infrastructure. He said some trains
dated as far back as 1956.
“We ask people to be patient, even with the little service that they
are receiving. We will not lie and say that this old infrastructure
will be fixed within a year,” he said.
Last month angry uMlazi train commuters torched cars at the J-section
train station in the township. The damage resulted in train operations
being stopped on the uMlazi and KwaMashu routes, the biggest in the city.
Kaunda added that government workers had a reputation of being lazy.
He said there was a perception that people who worked for the
government had made it in life and stopped working hard when they
worked for the state. Kaunda said some of these people spent their
days doing nothing and provided poor services to the public. “We get
criticised for lazy work,” Kaunda said.
The poor work ethic and corruption needed to be addressed, he said.
Kaunda had also conducted raids at flats in the Point area with the
police looking for drugs. He said some people there had received
tip-offs which could only have come from corrupt police officers. This
also needed to be addressed.
Daily News