Petrol bomb causes severe burns in South African trucker strike

MORE than 20 trucks have been damaged, a score injured and some 40 arrested as the nationwide South African truck strike intensifies.

Two non-striking truckers were burned when a Molotov cocktail petrol bomb was thrown into their cab in Durban after they were ambushed on the M7 highway in Queensburgh.


Safmarine, the big South African carrier, said that all deliveries were "on hold in the greater Johannesburg area because of striker intimidation. We will undertake deliveries only if it is safe to do so. In the Durban area many haulage companies are not operating today despite activities in the port functioning normally," said a company spokesman.`


Safmarine told of intimidation in the eastern Cape, in Port Elizabeth and East London, but maintained that container movements through the terminal gate were normal. In Cape Town it was business as usual, the company said.


Backing down from their initial 20 per cent pay increase demand, the unions are now striking for a 10 per cent annually over the two years, plus housing allowances and a cutting back, rather than the elimination first demanded, of labour brokers.


The employers` Road Freight Employers Association (RFEA) has increased their first offer of 7.5 per cent to nine per cent over two years, which is still unacceptable to the striking South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (AATAWU).