It is widely assumed that the recent attacks on South Africa’s transport industry, which saw 21 trucks hijacked and set on fire on major national roads during the two-year anniversary of the July 2021 riots, are due to truck drivers’ unhappiness with the employment of foreign nationals.
However, Paul van Niekerk, owner of PC Transport and one of the trucks that were destroyed, does not believe this is the real reason.
Speaking on CapeTalk, Van Niekerk said these attacks are carried out by the drivers themselves, the majority of whom are South African, as they are dissatisfied with the rules and regulations of their employers and want to “work on their own terms.”
“They want to force you to give them a job, but they have bad attitudes and they don’t want to comply with the rules [of the company],” said Van Niekerk.
“They don’t want to do the job, and they don’t want to work the times and the areas where they need to work.”
Moreover, they are starting to see trucks as money mules as Van Niekerk said they are employing mafia-style tactics by demanding payment in return for safe passage for drivers and their trucks on certain sections of road.
An inside job
Van Niekerk said the vast majority of the criminals who have performed these truck attacks are employed drivers that are from South Africa.
A recent video surfaced where one of PC Transport’s trucks was hijacked and set alight, and the individual responsible for the vile crime was, in fact, a local driver of a different company’s truck who was also traveling on the same road on the same day, and his truck was parked mere kilometres away.
One of the criminals reportedly setting trucks alight was caught on an in-cab camera!! N2 between Piet Retief and Ermelo at Sheep-moor… https://t.co/jXRXLfaOba #ArriveAlive #Crime #TruckViolence @SAPoliceService @TruckAndFreight pic.twitter.com/RHUrqQvLVe
— Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) July 12, 2023
This criminal has since been identified and arrested, but Van Niekerk said he followed a similar modus operandi to the rest of the perpetrators.
He said the drivers stop their trucks at designated areas and are then picked up in private cars and dropped off at a pre-determined time and location to wait for their victim.
They document the vehicles they attack and how they attacked them, and share these details with groups to build up their reputation.
“It’s a way to prove that they’re not just talking and that they’re actually doing something,” said Van Niekerk.
They keep this as evidence to intimidate other drivers into cooperating with them as well as threaten employers to give in to their demands, or face similar consequences.
These attacks have been labeled as economic terrorism by groups such as the Democratic Alliance (DA), which has opened a case against the attackers in terms of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act.
While at least five suspects have been arrested in connection with the burnings thus far, the masterminds behind the operation are still at large and 12 “people of interest” has been identified, police minister Bheki Cele confirmed.
Gavin Kelly, the CEO of the Road Freight Agency (RFA), said that the violence threatens the value chain for 80% of all the goods sold in the country, having already resulted in the loss of hundreds of millions of rands for businesses with the longer-term losses being incalculable.
These kinds of attacks are nothing new, though, as they have been going on for years and have already cost South Africa its “gateway to Africa” status, as international companies have started to move their freight to more stable ports of entry in neighbouring countries, said Kelly.
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