Not for the first time questions are being raised about why truck torching on South African roads tends to flare up every time revelations of rot about the country’s state-capture years under Jacob Zuma grab the country’s attention.
Last week, when yet more muck was unearthed by the testimony of former parliamentarian Sydney Mufumadi to chief justice Raymond Zondo’s commission of inquiry, five trucks were petrol bombed on the R59.
It was late on Thursday evening, with the country still collectively shaking its head in disbelief at stories of how the State Security Agency (SSA) had been captured, when at least one truck and the cabin of another were completely burned out.
According to a report received over the weekend, the attacks were all carried out near the Kliprivier off-ramp by a group of men using petrol bombs.
“Two of the trucks were totally burnt and destroyed while a third caught alight, but the driver managed to put out the fire.”
In one of the attacks a petrol bomb was thrown into a cabin but failed to ignite. The arsonists subsequently pulled the 50-year-old driver from his cabin and assaulted him.
Some of the other drivers had to flee into open veld to escape the same fate as the man who had been admitted to hospital because of the injuries he had sustained.
Importantly, the report said, this was the same general area where some 26 trucks had been burnt by attackers last November, in what became one of South Africa’s most vicious periods of trucks getting firebombed.
What’s interesting is that the attacks to which transporters have been exposed have, for the most part, happened on certain highways: the R59 between Vereeniging and Alberton, the N3 to the Port of Durban, and the N4 through Mpumalanga.
Although there are exceptions, such as incidents of truck torching on arterial roads in the vicinity of Bethal and elsewhere, representatives of the freight industry have identified certain hot spots.
Moreover, one representative who asked not be named for fear of victimisation, said the attacks seemed to be politically motivated.
“Whenever something is said about Jacob Zuma at the Zondo Commission, something happens and trucks are set alight somewhere. It seems to be a deliberate attempt to destabilise the economy.”
In the absence of confirmation that something sinister is indeed behind the threat to South Africa’s road freight sector, transporters are keeping a close watch on the All Truck Drivers Foundation (ATDF), the vigilante group accused of sparking much of the violence because of its opposition to foreign nationals working in South Africa’s road haulage sector.
Road Freight Association (RFA) CEO Gavin Kelly has reiterated that there are proper channels to follow if the attacks are sparked by labour-related grievances.
“This violence must stop. It is uncalled-for and targets or harms the very persons the ATDF and others claim to want to protect.
“There are formal structures to deal with requests and or issues between employees and employers.”
Of course it’s the job of agencies like the SSA to look into ongoing threats aimed at disrupting vital economic functions such as physical supply-chain concerns, whether these are labour related or politically motivated.
Unfortunately South Africa finds itself in such a desperate state of clawing itself back from the brink of collapse following nine years of Zuma-led corruption that transporters unfortunately have to fend for themselves.
