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TRUCKERS STORY * RWANDA & UGANDA - Cross-continent truckers risk more than HIV
"When truckers get out of their trucks, the first thing they want is a shower, then to have something to eat and a beer, and seek sexual satisfaction with unprotected sex workers"
Katuna,Rwanda -IRIN/PlusNews (South Africa) -23 October 2008: -- Edward Oboth Ofumbi is glad his days as a long-distance truck driver are over; glad to have left a life filled with long, solitary journeys on some of Africa's worst roads, carrying valuable cargo on highways with minimal security... "Truckers are a frustrated bunch; the roads are horrible, they are worried about thugs who want their cargo, police who want bribes, and they have deadlines to meet which are threatened by long delays at customs points," he told IRIN/PlusNews, "They are constantly fatigued. Many truckers become hardened; they are a difficult group to talk to, to communicate with"... "When truckers get out of their trucks, the first thing they want is a shower, then to have something to eat and a beer," Ofumbi said. "They are not in the mood to be lectured about HIV"... Fatigue and frustration often led truckers to abuse alcohol and drugs in an effort to "shake the road off", and substance abuse often went hand in hand with risky sexual choices, such as having unprotected sex with sex workers. Ofumbi said because truckers were often killed or injured in motor accidents, their risk perception was skewed to believe they were more likely to die on the road than from HIV-related illnesses. Local insecurity could also make reaching truckers with HIV interventions difficult: they carried expensive cargo, so safety and security in the towns where they slept over was of the utmost importance, and if there was a hint of danger they would stay in another town...
Poor employment terms often contributed to frustration and substance abuse. "I carry goods from Mombasa [a port on Kenya's east coast] all over this region; sometimes the goods I carry are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Joash Runga, a trucker preparing to spend the night in Katuna en route to the Democratic Republic of Congo. "And what do I get paid? One hundred and fifty dollars per month. I have no security, the roads are bad, we have to pay bribes, and the allowances for spending the night in towns like this are poor. Why do you think we drink so much?"... ATGWU has tried to lobby the transport companies for better terms for drivers, but because there is a greater demand for trucking jobs than for truckers, the union's members are reluctant to take industrial action to demand better working conditions... (Photo IRIN: Trucks carrying logs from the tropical rainforest of the Central Africa Republic) * Uganda - Truck owners miss oil contracts
Kampala,Uganda -New Vision, by Ibrahim Kasita -22 Oct 2008: -- Truck operators are crying foul over foreign vehicles working in the oil-rich Albertine Graben, a situation that is denying them a chance to reap from the oil cash... Heritage, Neptune and Tullow are exploring for oil and gas in the area, an activity, which involves transporting logistics and machinery for drilling... The energy ministry promised Ugandans that they would benefit from the discovery of oil by providing services like transport, catering and security jobs for the contractors... However, local transporters claim that oil exploring firms are awarding illegal tenders to foreign transporters... The Uganda Commercial Truck Owners Association (UCTOA) has written to the works and transport ministry to “immediately intervene” and “curb this illegal tendency that is denying our members revenue hence unjust and unfair.” ... “The association is aware of the distinction between foreign vehicles making deliveries from neighbouring countries, which is in order.”
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