Another truck has reportedly been set alight on the R59 Route in Gauteng. It comes amid a recent spate of attacks on trucks, with at least 15 trucks having been torched in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
Later today, Police Minister Bheki Cele and the South African Police Service (SAPS) management will brief the nation on the police’s response to acts of violence targeting freight trucks.
Meanwhile, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU) says it will soon write to the Police Minister Bheki to request that officers escort truck drivers. SATAWU spokesperson, Amanda Tshemese says the attacks are tantamount to economic sabotage.
“It can’t be that after so many years the motive behind this criminality is still unknown by government and the employer. That’s just unacceptable. The attacks toward the truck drivers is nothing new. More than anything we are worried about the safety of our members and workers. We’ve had cases before with truck drivers being tortured, beaten up and robbed of their belongings by the perpetrator. We’re also saying to the employer that South Africans need to be prioritised in the road freight industry.”
KwaZulu-Natal Police Spokesperson Jay Naicker says they are optimistic that they will soon make a breakthrough in the recent attacks on trucks in the province.
“We have put in permanent deployment on day and night basis that will be patrolling these routes. so a lot of our resources have been put into that. In terms of investigation we can confirm that the investigations have been centralized to the Provincial Organised Crime Unit.”
“They have already started their work in terms of profiling certain individuals, we’ve interviewed the drivers of the trucks that were affected as well as the victims. They have downloaded video footages from different sources to identify the perpetrators and we are quite certain that we will be able to make a breakthrough soon.”
Protection
Role players in the transport and logistics industry have called for protection following a spate of trucks set alight in the country. They form part of those gathered at the CSIR in Pretoria on Day 2 of the 41st Southern African Transport Conference.
Director of Heavy Vehicle Transport Technology Africa, Dr Paul Nordengen says there is a need for concrete interventions to safeguard the trucks, drivers and the country’s economy.
“It’s tragic what’s happening in the last few days. From an economic point of view obviously a closure of this major corridors has a huge impact on the freight movement. Many of the transport operators their contracts have a very fine margins so when they have delays it has a huge impact on their margins especially the smaller companies.
VIDEO: Truck attacks threaten logistics supply chains:
Additional reporting by Nomtsikelelo Mthabela.
