Cape Town – Police Minister Bheki Cele has reportedly said that there is no connection between the recent truck burnings in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga and the anniversary of the 2021 July unrest.
According to News24, Cele dismissed these incidents as acts of criminality and challenged anyone who believed they were linked to provide evidence.
“The truck issues, there has been so much happening between 2021 and now. Anyone who has evidence of the so-called celebration of the unrest can bring it to me. We see it as sabotage and criminality. If there was nothing of that sort since then [2021], I would have suspected so,” the report quoted the minister as saying.
He expressed confidence that the police would resolve the incidents and apprehend the suspects.
Cele also mentioned tensions between national truck drivers and foreign national drivers as a possible underlying issue contributing to the violence.
Two more trucks have reportedly been torched 🔥on the #N2 highway towards Empangeni in #KwaZuluNatal.
Details are sketchy, but it is believed the heavy-duty vehicles were set alight on Monday night. Police are yet to confirm. #TruckAttacks Video: Supplied. @TheCitizen_News pic.twitter.com/2b2BXrv6fY— 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚣𝚎𝚕 𝙿𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚕 (@FaizelPatel143) July 11, 2023
His remarks came hours after two trucks were set alight by armed men in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal on Monday night.
This, on the back of 11 trucks that were torched in two separate incidents on the N3 in Van Reenen’s Pass and the N4 in Mpumalanga.
According to EWN, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola announced on Tuesday that police roadblocks will be set up along major transport routes countrywide to prevent any more truck attacks.
“The drivers are let go and the drivers is a mix of foreign truck drivers that drive locally owned trucks. And no, they didn’t get injured, they simply shoot and torch the trucks, but we don’t have injuries up to this stage.
“We cannot say exactly what it is. It looks like a labour-related issue of foreign truck drivers but there [are] trucks which are driven by South African drivers which are being torched. There we cannot exactly say that it is the problem of foreign truck drivers or it’s another problem,” the report quoted Masemola as saying.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Twitter/@SANDILE_PANTHER
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Betha Madhomu
