LISWATI TRUCK DRIVER SHOT IN SA

MANZINI – Another liSwati truck driver was shot on Wednesday night in Richards Bay, South Africa.

The truck driver was shot at a time when some South Africans, including truck drivers, who are believed to be members of the All Truck Drivers Foundation (ATDF), have revived the xenophobic attacks on foreign truck drivers, who are working in the neighbouring country. The bullet targeting the truck driver reportedly pierced through his arms into his chest. He was said to have tried to defend himself by warding off the gun when it was fired; as a result the shot was not fatal at the time of impact. Impeccable sources said he was then rushed to Ngwelezane Hospital in the KwaZulu-Natal Province. He is said to be in a critical condition. Information gathered was that the driver had started working for Parsons Logistics Services. Subsequent to the shooting targeting the truck driver, his assailants also set the horse and trailer truck alight.

Confirmed

Parsons Logistics Services Manager Jaco Parsons confirmed the incident. He bemoaned the incident and said they were praying that the driver recuperates. He said the damage incurred was about E550 000. On this day, a month ago, this publication reported that a liSwati truck driver was shot dead amid the ongoing xenophobic attacks in South Africa. He was killed in Richards Bay. Sithembiso Ntshingila (41) of Hlatikhulu in the Shiselweni Region, was also employed by Parsons Logistics Services and was supposedly shot three times. He was the third liSwati truck driver to experience the xenophobic attacks as another liSwati truck driver was heavily assaulted by South African citizens with sjamboks.  The truck driver was also given a warning to go back to his country - Eswatini.

It is worth noting that when carrying xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals, especially truck drivers, they argue that most of them were illegal immigrants and that in South Africa, they had more than enough South African truck drivers who were well qualified, but they were allegedly not given a chance because foreigners were regarded as cheap labour. In 2020, it was reported how the onslaught against companies employing foreign truck drivers had left dozens of people dead or injured and caused E1.2 billion in damages to trucks and cargo. Meanwhile, it has been reported by Sunday World, a South African weekly publication, that calls were growing within and outside the government for the introduction of tough measures to significantly curtail the employment of foreign nationals, amid stubbornly high unemployment rates and rising tensions between locals and immigrants.

Warning

The publication quoted the South African Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi, as warning that entry into South Africa could not be a ‘free for all’ and revealed that the government was mulling over ‘harsh’ penalties against companies that employ illegal foreign nationals to curb the pressing crisis of immigration.Nxesi charged that some of the illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries were former soldiers who had participated in wars and were still armed to the teeth and involved in crime. In an interview with Sunday World, Nxesi reportedly said South Africa’s porous borders had effectively led to the distortion of the labour market and were a threat to the security of the country. “We can be able to stop this thing of employment of foreigners at the expense of locals by coming up with very harsh laws, punitive measures against the employers,” Nxesi was quoted saying.

Fines

He was reported to have said companies continue to hire undocumented foreign nationals because they knew that they would get away with it by just paying small fines. Sunday World reported that the South African minister was speaking on the sidelines of the 27th annual summit of the National Economic Development and Labour Council, which was held at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand. His comments came at a time when tensions were rising between South Africans and foreign nationals over jobs and healthcare. Nxesi was quoted telling the Nedlac summit that it was incorrect to label South Africans as xenophobic on the issue of migration.

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