By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
SA Police Service (SAPS) have confirmed that two more suspects have been arrested in connection with the attacks and burning of trucks.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe said the two suspects had been arrested in Mpumalanga and Limpopo on Friday and Saturday.
He added that the suspect arrested in Limpopo had been found with an unlicenced firearm in their possession.
Altogether, five people have now been arrested.
“Police are confident that they are closing in on the ring leaders behind these acts of criminality,” Mathe said.
More than 20 trucks have been torched in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo this month.
the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said it will assist the police amid the truck attacks which have gripped the country.
“The South African National Defence Force can confirm its deployment in support of the South African Police Service, namely in four provinces, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Free State province,” SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini sad in a brief statement.
Earlier, Police Minister Bheki Cele had indicated that that 12 people “of interest” were identified in connection with the truck attacks.
Meanwhile all Truck Drivers Forum and Allied SA (ATDF-ASA) and controversial lobby group Operation Dudula are said to have orchestrated, City Press has reported.
The two organisations were mentioned in a leaked crime intelligence report, which detailed how the attacks were carried out in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
Mostly foreign drivers’ trucks were allegedly targeted and burnt by “IsiZulu-speaking African males”, while South African drivers were let off the hook.
The suspects, according to the report, would demand the identity documents of drivers as well as the proof of ownership of the truck before they were torched.
The movement demands that government remove all foreign national truck drivers from the road freight industry with immediate effect. It also wants a salary increase of 15% for all local truck drivers and [demands that] drivers without valid work permits be removed from [their jobs],” the report reads.
ATDF-ASA and Operation Dudula have also reportedly demanded that the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) grace period be scrapped by government.