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Delivery driver crackdown in South Africa

Source: My Broadband, 13/11/2024

South Africas Home Affairs and Employment and Labour departments have high-risk employment sectors in their sights and could soon crack down on illegal workers in the on-demand delivery space.This could pose a significant challenge for on-demand and fast food delivery services like Bolt, Checkers Sixty60, Pick n Pay asap!, and Uber Eats.While these companies vet and check driver identity documents as part of their signup processes, Home Affairs appears to have a significant fraud problem, and many of the asylum documents or work permits held by drivers may be fraudulent.Minister of Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhozana Meth, in response to recent parliamentary questions, said her department plans to target high-risk sectors.In partnership with law enforcement, the Departments of Home Affairs and Employment and Employment and Labour have been conducting raids at restaurants nationwide to identify and remove illegally employed foreigners.High-impact and joined blitz inspections take place at least once every quarter. These inspections are risk-based, said Meth.The next such inspections will take place around November/December. High-risk and problematic sectors would be targeted in this regard.This could mean raids on the on-demand and fast food delivery spaces could be in the pipeline, as the industry employs many foreigners.Motorcycle Safety Institute of South Africa founder Hein Jonker recently raised concerns over this, as he believed some of the riders arent qualified to be on the countrys roads.He said many may have come from countries where a car licence allows holders to ride any vehicle class below that level, including motorcycles and scooters.They may not have gone through a motorcycle licence test or any motorcycle training; theyve learnt from their friends, said Jonker.However, while major operators in the space have processes to confirm that drivers on their platform hold permits, verifying their legitimacy is a different question.Spar national PR manager Mpudi Maubane recently told MyBroadband that the companys recruitment protocol is designed to ensure high safety and compliance standards, including compliance with immigration and employment laws.For foreign national drivers, we implement additional checks to ensure adherence to Regulation 110 (1) of the National Road Traffic Regulations, said Maubane.The checks are additional to confirming that drivers hold the required permits.On its Deliver with Uber Eats page, Uber specifies that applying drivers must submit clear identification documents. These documents cannot be copies and will not be accepted if all four corners arent visible.Acceptable forms of identification include:South African Identity book or card South African PassportNon-South African Passport + PermitAsylum seeker/Refugee Permit Refugee IDHowever, confirming whether the documents are legitimate poses another challenge.While many may appear to be official documents, many fake permits were found at businesses that have been raided.Fraudulent documents a major problemA Gauteng business owner recently told MyBroadband that directors, faced with the joint Home Affairs and Department of Labour raids, preemptively started trying to verify staff documents through the DHAs email and SMS channels.After staff signed a consent form and provided their documents, the directors sent them to ASMVerifications@dha.gov.za for verification.Its an ongoing process, but for a number of them, Home Affairs have no record of the document, so we have to assume it is fake and terminate employment, the business owner said.We have no idea who is issuing these documents.The businesss directors could also try to verify the legitimacy of the South African IDs held by some staff members via a Home Affairs SMS number. After sending an SMS containing an ID number, the department responds by confirming the name and date of birth associated with the ID.The owner said most IDs were verified to be legitimate, but there was one instance where an ID number was verified to be correct but with no other details.

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