By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
SA Police Service (SAPS) on Thursday confirmed they had arrested two truck drivers in connection with several trucks being set alight in Mpumalanga.
The two were arrested at their respective homes in Mpumalanga on Thursday morning.
Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said the suspects, aged 27 and 29, were arrested in Piet Retief and Ermelo.
“A multidisciplinary team assigned with investigating the attacks and burning of trucks have made their first arrests this morning in Mpumalanga. Both suspects face a charge of malicious damage to property.”
National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola warned that more arrests are in the offing.
“Police are hot on the heels of more suspects which involve the ring leaders of these sporadic incidents of criminality.
“Either they hand themselves over, or we fetch them ourselves.”
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.”