South Africa Renews Bid to Stem Blockades on Key Trade Routes
- Government and industry set up taskforce to address concerns
- Police could be strategically deployed to national roads
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South Africa’s government has signed an agreement with trucking associations to end frequent blockades of key trade routes that are estimated to have cost the economy millions of dollars.
Truckers regularly block major arterial roads in protest of the hiring of foreigners as drivers, including last week when a key route to South Africa’s biggest port and commercial hub of Johannesburg was disrupted. The blockades will stop while a taskforce develops a plan to address truckers’ concerns, particularly around the hiring of foreigners, according to the terms of a deal signed on Monday.