By Hassan I. Conteh
The recent sit-down strike and pockets of protests in some parts in Sierra Leone badly hit vehicle trade earners.
Many of the drivers interviewed aftermath the protest which happened on Monday September 11, 2023, told Africa24 that they could not travel to and fro the capital and the province.
Their concerns are not different to other similar protests that had occurred in the country. They face almost the same fate.
When vehicles don’t move; work doesn’t go on. And that means the drivers and their apprentices are out of job when protests situations arise in the country.
Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown saw its first countrywide sit- down strike and demonstration after two months when the country held its general elections June 24.
Sierra Leoneans were motivated by some anti-civil rights activists to go on a protest action as a way of expressing their grievances on government’s increased of a litre of fuel in the country.
When a price per a litre on petroleum products go up, it means that prices on goods and services will rise in the country.
This is because Sierra Leone imports most of its edible goods and other goods including fuel substance from abroad.
And since government has stopped paying subsides on fuel commodity, Sierra Leoneans now spend huge sum of money to afford some basic essential goods for home use.
The Monday 11 protests came immediately after a litre of fuel jumps from Le 21,000 to Le 30,000. The price was announced by a government petroleum regulatory body on July 29, 2023.
Not only are goods and services affected by the shocks, but also transport fares are said to be increased across the country.
For example, Le 7,000 old fare paid by passengers between Freetown and Waterloo (21 miles drive) went up to Le 11,000.
The upcountry trans-service men said they’ve faced more challenges as the pump price of fuel recently adds-up.
“There had always been shocking absence of passengers at lorry parks including here,” he said.
“And most passengers now prefer to board on mini-buses and poda-poda instead; they say we charge high fares….”
A senior driver who has been into the trade for the past fifteen years also said that most of them now focus their attention on what he described as ‘trans-service’ to mean loaded lorries only without passengers.
He said similar protests by civilians will continue to affect ‘trans-service’ or the whole transport industry while they the drivers get little to save a day in their pockets since they couldn’t get enough load, owned by business investors, that could enable their traveling to upcountry.
“Since ordinary passengers without load couldn’t use trans-service lorry at normal times, we are affected most by country’s civil sit-down protests or demonstrations,” the driver explained, when asked at Texaco Lorry Park in the east of Freetown on Wednesday 14, 2023.