Last week’s petrol bombing of some 20 trucks on four routes in the Heidelberg area appeared to be a coordinated attack, according to the editor of online trucking magazine FleetWatch, Patrick O’Leary.
The attacks on the N3, R103, R23 and R550, with damage estimated to amount to tens of millions of rands, ‘can no longer be regarded as protest action; no matter what the cause of the protest’, O’Leary said in a Facebook post.
‘This, by all measures, was a well-planned and coordinated campaign with all attacks having started at around 10.15pm with trucks on four major freeways being hit at the same time. That doesn’t speak of random service delivery protests.’
Allegedly the trucks were petrol-bombed by occupants of several vehicles who pretended to have been in an accident.
The Sunday Times reported yesterday that ‘(fears) of a deadly trucking war are mounting’, and that, according to the Road Freight Association (RFA), at least 30 trucks were attacked across the country last week.
The attacks precede a planned march on Transnet’s Durban harbour offices by the National Truck Foundation (NTF). The NTF is demanding that foreign drivers be stopped from collecting cargo on the grounds that they pose a ‘security threat’ to the country.
Sipho Zungu, head of the All Truck Drivers Foundation (ATDF), which opposes the employment of foreigners, said: ‘What trucks were burnt? I am sure people will use it as an excuse to blame the ATDF.’
Zungu said that the issues the ATDF raised last year had not been resolved. ‘We are angry that South African truck drivers are sitting at home jobless, while foreign drivers are earning a living in trucks owned by South African businesses.’
RFA CEO Gavin Kelly said the violence appeared to be ‘highly co-ordinated’ and a continuation of 2019’s attacks.
‘The attacks, especially on the N3, are hugely concerning given the economic importance of the route to SA and its neighbours,’ he said.
‘Roughly 3 000 trucks use that route daily. It’s vital it’s kept secure. If these attacks continue, businesses in neighbouring countries will divert to ports in other countries.
‘We think the claim that foreigners are taking jobs is an excuse for something else.’
O’Leary said the attacks amounted to ‘a declaration of war against truckers and the economy which has been well planned over multiple levels’, and that the motivation ‘goes deeper than protests against the employment of foreign drivers’.
O’Leary added: ‘Given the dismal performance of rail, the trucking industry is the only sector that is keeping the economy moving and yet it is being hammered on all sides, (the) attacks being just one.’
Mary Phadi, president of the Truck Association of SA, said: ‘No-one knows what’s going on. We examined footage of the violence but cannot identify any perpetrators. It is total anarchy. You cannot have people bombing trucks on SA’s busiest trucking route with no arrests being made.’
DA Gauteng MPL Fred Nel last week described the attacks as economic sabotage.
‘The damage will amount to tens of millions of rand as expensive vehicles were destroyed and their loads were either damaged or destroyed.
‘We cannot afford to have our economy held to ransom and sabotaged in this way,’ he said.