Mozambique: Police arrest truck drivers demanding better working conditions – RFI

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Mozambique: Police arrest truck drivers demanding better working conditions – RFI

2:30 CAT | 03 Dec 2020

Picture: Michael Teelde / AFP

The Motorists’ Association of Mozambique has denounced the detention of truck drivers demonstrating peaceably for better working conditions on December 2.

About 30 long-distance truck drivers were arrested yesterday in the provinces of Sofala, Nampula and in the city of Maputo, to prevent them demonstrating for better working conditions.

The stoppage had been authorised and was scheduled for 6:00 p.m. local time.

António Ferro, president of the Mozambican Drivers’ Association (AMMO), has condemned the police action.

“… when we stopped today, the police started forcing us out. It started with arrests and, to say, now in Beira there are 10 detainees, in Nampula there are 19 detainees, here in Maputo there is one detainee. So now, we don’t know why they are detaining us. We have a document [authorisation] that they told us that we had to obtain and we did. The demonstration is peaceful,” Ferro reported.

The nearly 7,000 drivers and transporters have since 2019 been demanding better working conditions and professional recognition, employment contracts, the payment of contributions to the National Institute of Social Security, reduction of their workload and a wage increase to 25,000 meticais with medical assistance, AMMO vice president João Festo told RFI.

Despite a police presence in areas where the drivers had gathered, they promised to continue to demonstrate, potentially aggravating an already difficult situation in the transport sector because of the Covid -19 pandemic.

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique accuses the Association of Drivers of acting in “bad faith and in an unethical manner” and in breach of the consensus between the parties.

Source: RFI