Four more trucks torched in Mpumalanga, raising count of attacks to 20.

By Lehlohonolo Lehana.

Four trucks were burnt in Mpumalanga on Wednesday morning while two others caught fire in separate accidents in the Free State and Gauteng.

This is the fourth incident where several trucks have been set alight in the past three days – bringing the number of torched trucks to 20.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said the four trucks were burnt on Wednesday morning at around 05:30 on the N2 between Piet Retief and Ermelo.

The drivers were reportedly ordered, at gunpoint, to exit the trucks before they were torched, said Mohlala.

“It is alleged that people emerged from the grasses and approached the trucks with firearms and instructed the drivers to get out otherwise they would burn them inside. They [drivers] then left and ran away.”

One person, a passenger, sustained burn wounds on her face and feet. It is understood that she was sleeping inside one of the trucks when it was set alight. She has since been taken to hospital for treatment.

No arrests have been made yet and the motive for the attack is still unclear.

Gavin Kelly, the CEO of the Road Freight Agency (RFA), said that these nationwide acts threaten the value chain that transports roughly 80% of the goods in and around South Africa.

According to Kelly, with a rough estimate of 7,000 vehicles being affected for one day, this could lead to R35 million in sector losses running into billions when international business confidence plummets.

“Without trucks, South Africa stops,” he stressed.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), said that it plans to open a case in terms of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act (POCDATARA Act) to demand a full investigation into the recent attacks on trucks.

“These are not isolated incidents. The sheer precision and efficiency indicate a disturbing level of coordination that has managed to outmanoeuvre the SAPS,” said the DA.

“It is a failing of our law enforcement’s intelligence arm, one that echoes the incompetence demonstrated during the July 2021 unrest that exacted a devastating human and economic toll.”

“In terms of the POCDATARA Act, any act that involves systematic, repeated, or arbitrary use of violence by any means or method, or which causes substantial damage to any property, or causes any major economic loss or extensive destabilisation of an economic system or substantial devastation of the national economy of a country, or which intimidates, induces, or causes feelings of insecurity, including economic security, is defined as a terrorist activity.”

Deputy president Paul Mashatile says the state security agency knows who is behind the torching of trucks, adding that the government was “on top of things”.  

Today, police minister Bheki Cele will brief the nation on what cops are doing to clamp down on what appears to be a coordinated attack on at least 20 trucks so far.

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