Durban trucking firms are living in fear and opting to play it safe by changing their schedules to avoid driving at night following the torching of dozens of vehicles along the N3 in recent weeks.
More than 15 trucks were petrol-bombed near Mooi River, on the R103, at Dalton, Cato Ridge, Bayhead and Pietermaritzburg last weekend and a truck was also attacked on the R59 between Sasol and Vereeniging. Police minister Bheki Cele said during a high level media briefing
last week that 91 people had been arrested over a threeweek period but he raised concern that suspects had been charged with traffic offences and not more serious crimes related to “economic sabotage”. Transport minister Fikile Mbalula, minister of employment and labour Thulas Nxesi, and minister of home affairs Aaron Motsoaledi attended the briefing in which Cele announced that the departments were working together to solve the problem. Durban Harbour Carriers' Association chairwoman Sue Moodley said some transporters had opted to travel more during the day to protect their drivers and vehicles from arsonists. Moodley said the office of Premier Sihle Zikalala had approached the organisation to engage with the government on possible solutions to the problem. “The issue of burning trucks is ongoing – it is not just a KZN problem it’s
a national problem. The economy is suffering and the government needs to step up and do their work and get the policing up,” Moodley said. She said the association was waiting to hear back from the premier’s office regarding a proposed meeting. “The government needs to sit down with the various groups and sort this out.” Sewraj Girdhurparsadh, director of Aliwal Security which provides security services to the logistics sector, said despite government’s promises to beef up security drivers were still living in fear. “They have promised lots of things but nothing has translated into action. Truckers still live in fear. We don’t see an increase of police presence on the N3. Lots of smaller operators have stopped sending trucks,” Girdhurparsadh said. “The N3 runs through many towns which are policing areas and if each police station in the town could park a vehicle at the bridges at Hilton, Estcourt and Pietermaritzburg and make sure no one is throwing stones on trucks it would help.” Sanral operations and maintenance manager, eastern region, Dudley Mbambo, said the agency had handed over CCTV surveillance camera evidence to the police. “Sanral cameras did pick up some of the incidents involving truckers on the N2and N3 and all information/ camera footage has been sent to the relevant enforcement agencies,” Mbambo said. “There are no particular hot spots at this time, however any unusual activity is immediately reported to the relevant authorities.” Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly said the organisation was busy researching the incidents and working with the SAPS to
analyse the trends around the attacks in order to explore the reasons for the arson, which some have alleged is due to the anger of locals about the hiring of foreign truck drivers. “One of the difficulties is that there has been looting all over the place and one is not sure whether that is the same activity. There are hijackings and lootings and it is difficult to discern whether something that started as one thing has turned into something else. Over the months there were a lot of service delivery protests and trucks burned so it has been difficult to distil whether an incident was a service delivery protest and someone decided to put their hand up and make it about foreign drivers,” Kelly said. SAPS spokesman Jay Naicker referred a request for comment to the premier’s office. Zikalala’s office had not responded.
Sanral has handed over CCTV surveillance camera evidence to the police. – Dudley Mbambo
