Pumps may run dry if strike continues
AS STRIKING truck drivers marched in Joburg yesterday to deliver a memorandum of grievances, the impact of the strike was being felt worse in some industries than others in KwaZulu-Natal.
The Banking Association said it had not received any reports of major disruptions in cash supply for ATMs.
The association’s Luyanda Tetyana said that “the strike has had minimal impact on ATMs across the country” and that cash stocks were under control.
“The banks have contingency plans in place and have been proactively ATMs.”
FNB and Standard Bank spokesmen echoed Tetyana’s sentiments, saying they had experienced minimal disruptions.
The petrol industry, however, was feeling the pinch, with reports of stations waiting longer for fuel, and many close to running dry.
Fani Tshifularo, chairman of the SA Petroleum Industry Association, said yesterday the impact of the strike was now being felt by garage owners.
“We have started to notice a delay in petrol being delivered to stations and there have been reports of shortages,” he said,
restocking warning that these incidents would increase as the strike continued.
“The situation tomorrow will be worse than the situation today, and we are expecting stations to start running dry.”
Also feeling the adverse effect of the stayaway by drivers was the local construction industry, with reports of shortages in building materials, as site deliveries took a knock.
Commenting on the strike, Group Five KZN managing director Craig Jessop said: “It is adversely affecting the supply of rebar [steel] and bitumen, and there has definitely been a shortage of concrete.”
As certain sectors
felt a shortage in goods, some truck drivers were feeling much more violent repercussions.
Two cases of arson were being investigated in the Eastern Cape, police said yesterday, after trucks were set alight by unknown assailants, while in Cape Town a truck overturned after being hit with stones while travelling on the N2.
Police, however, said that they did not think the stonethrowing was linked to the strike.
Closer to home, striking drivers gathered along Old Main Road in Pinetown as they continued their stayaway, while demanding a 12 percent pay increase.