Trade unions suspend strike

"Leadership is not only about taking mandates to negotiations but also about convincing your constituency that mandates need to be adjusted," said Fedusa general secretary Dennis George.

The Transport and Allied Workers Union, the Professional Transport Workers Union (PTAWU) and the Motor Transport Workers Union (MTWU), who together represent 15,000 of the striking truckers, suspended their strike activities on Tuesday.

The MTWU and PTAWU are Fedusa-affiliated unions.

"We applaud MTWU and PTAWU for the leadership and statesmanship shown by this difficult decision," George said.

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) spokesman Vincent Masoga said its members would continue to strike. The union represents about 28,000 drivers and workers.

Satawu is demanding a 12% increase for its members but has indicated that it is willing to drop this demand to 10%.

The Road Freight Employers Association said it had already offered unions a double-digit increase but says Satawu rejected its offer, saying it only amounted to nine percent.

The strike action has resulted in scores of injuries, looted and burned out trucks and at least one fatality.

Trucker Gary Stewart died in a Cape Town after a stone thrown by striking workers penetrated his windshield and struck him on the head. He was kept on life supported until being declared brain-dead.

Strikes continued across the country on Tuesday. In Durban cases of intimidation seemed to have died down, local authorities said.

At Durban's port, a long queue of trucks was forming at the port's Bayhead area, stretching several kilometres over the Congella bridge into Umbilo.

Ethekwini metro police spokesman Superintendent Eugene Msomi said this was due to truck drivers taking advantage of the fact that "the intimidation had died down".

Source: Sapa via I-Net Bridge