Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi has refused to state the time frames on which the inter-ministerial committee team he leads to deal with grievances by truck drivers would finalise its mandate.
“The inter-ministerial committee continues to be hard at work into resolving issues around road freight industry.
“As you are perfectly aware … indeed, we have multiple stages of implementation,” Nxesi said.
He was responding to IFP MP Siphosethu Ngcobo, who noted that the road and freight industry was being dominated by foreign nationals despite Nxesi’s acknowledgement that there was no shortage of skilled truck drivers in the country.
Ngcobo asked about the action the inter-ministerial committee – consisting of the Nxesi’s ministry, Transport, Home Affairs and the Police – have come up with to address the grievances of truck drivers who have continued to block national roads.
He also asked about the time frame for the implementation of the 11-stage action plan signed by the road and freight Inter-ministerial committee and the road and freight industry stakeholders as well as amount spent on the plan.
Nxesi said there would always be various stages of progress in implementation of the plans.
“There are some that would be progressing quite well and there would be those that will continue to need a lot of engagement time with all the stake-holders.
“Negotiations with the relevant stakeholders, especially those who see stakes being too high, would always be a bit sticky and riddled with manifold intricacies.
“This is the reason why it would not be possible to then say on this particular time and date all will be well and good,” he said.
He said they were avoiding the issue of piecemeal publication of progress they were making when some of the issues were intertwined.
“But having stated that, in the area of persuading different groupings who ordinarily ought to be a single one, given their common interests, there is much focus in it.
“Yes, sometimes, the progress can easily be seen as the back and forth one, in the sense that, one time there is an agreement, in the next time others define themselves outside of what you would have thought has been dispensed with.”
Nxesi said in the area of his portfolio, they were also pushing strongly for the holistic resolution of the matter.
“We are very much aware that some of the challenges that we face as the country is economy that is not rising. In cases where it does, it is not necessarily inclusive” he said.
He asserted that economic growth would lead to employment.
“We are pushing for the labour migration policy, which is one leg of the employment policy.
“Even there, it is not in our plans to push a policy that may be quickly found to be inconsistent with the country’s constitution.
“So, we are so focused, meticulous and diligent in the work that we do,” Nxesi added.
Cape Times
