Crackdown on immigrant drivers puts SA cross-border trade at risk

South Africa's cross-border transporters are facing the wrath of law enforcement as the country clamps down on illegal immigration, with the lucrative Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) route the most affected, forcing the industry to seek relief from the minister of home affairs, Leon Schreiber.

The DRC route is particularly problematic because South African drivers are reluctant to take goods to and from the country due to the lawlessness they face in the mineral-rich country.

Concern has heightened as anti-foreigner sentiment has come to the fore in South Africa — with South African nationals fearing taking goods to neighbouring countries.

Mike Fitzmaurice, vice-president (Southern Africa) for the African Union of Transportation and Logistics Organisations, wrote to Schreiber on Wednesday, pleading with the government for a moratorium on enforcement action against foreign drivers employed by South African cross-border transporters.

"The industry's reliance on foreign drivers has not been without reason. As detailed in my previous correspondence to your office, it is driven by two practical realities: firstly, the specific operational skill set required for cross-border operations, which many local drivers do not possess; and secondly, the extremely challenging operating conditions in certain neighbouring countries, particularly the DRC," the letter reads.

"Regrettably, local drivers have on numerous occasions declined employment for these routes. Law enforcement agencies have intensified enforcement action against foreign drivers operating South African-registered vehicles on visitor's permits.

"Drivers are being arrested and removed from duty, with vehicles and high-value cargo being detained. This is causing severe delays to the movement of goods, undermining trade facilitation and damaging South Africa's reputation as a reliable transit and trade partner in the region."

Fitzmaurice pointed Schreiber to a 2014 North Gauteng High Court ruling on this issue, which said South African cross-border transporters were permitted to employ foreign drivers on the basis that such drivers were non-resident and entered South Africa on a 21-day visitor's visa exemption in terms of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002.

Drivers are being arrested and removed from duty, with vehicles and high-value cargo being detained. This is causing severe delays to the movement of goods, undermining trade facilitation and damaging South Africa's reputation as a reliable transit and trade partner in the region.     —  Mike Fitzmaurice, vice-president (Southern Africa) for the African Union of Transportation and Logistics Organisations (Letter) 

"Honourable minister, the wholesale removal of currently employed foreign drivers and their replacement with local drivers who are neither suitably skilled nor willing to operate in markets such as the DRC would cripple the cross-border sector overnight," his letter says.

"It would also, paradoxically, place at risk the jobs of thousands of South Africans employed in the broader logistics value chain, thereby exacerbating our already critical unemployment situation."

Several of South Africa's neighbours — Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, Malawi and the DRC — are landlocked or substantially landlocked for the purposes of seaborne trade and are wholly dependent on freedom of transit through South Africa to access South African ports.

The main commodities going to the DRC from South Africa are mining equipment, mining solvent, sulphuric acid and fuel — mostly diesel for the mines.

The goods coming out of the DRC for export via the ports of Durban, Walvis Bay, Dar es Salaam, Beira, and, more recently, the Lobito Rail Corridor to the Port of Lobito are copper cathodes, copper blisters, copper concentrate and cobalt.

Home affairs spokesperson Carli van Wyk said the department had received Fitzmaurice's correspondence, and his request did not find expression in the law.

"There exists no provision in the constitution or any applicable legislation that provides for any minister to declare a moratorium on the enforcement of any law. The minister will continue to exercise his responsibilities strictly in accordance with the constitution and the laws of the Republic," Van Wyk said.

The Institute for Security Studies said on Friday that the weekly anti-immigration protests planned by the March and March movement until the November local elections have an entrenched online engagement, including by using the Mandela name to legitimise their campaigns.

"Monitors report that the anti-immigration campaign has gained momentum, with some 3.6-million mentions since January 2026. This reflects active user engagement, but the potential reach may run into billions," the institute said.

International relations & co-operation minister Ronald Lamola recently travelled to Ghana as a special envoy to meet President John Mahama and lay out South Africa's immigration stance.

Former president Kgalema Motlanthe this week convened a seminar with business leaders and government officials to discuss South Africa's immigration challenges. Standard Bank boss Sim Tshabalala, who presides over a lender present in 20 African countries, warned that South Africa risks committing the mistake the UK did a decade ago when it left the EU, partly on concerns over immigration.