Bheki Cele threatens to call the army if truck fires escalate

Police Minister Bheki Cele says if needed, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) can be deployed to assist the South African Police Service (SAPS) with tackling the burning of trucks.

Cele’s spokesperson, Lirandzu Themba, said SAPS National Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Khehla Sithole, would have to communicate with the head of the SANDF and if upon assessment a need was established for the army to be deployed, then this would be done.

“While in the last 24 hours we’ve managed to bring stability on the roads due to increased police presence if the situation escalates then we will have to consider bringing in some reinforcements and increase boots on the ground.”

Police spokesperson, Colonel Brenda Muridili, said no recent incidents had been reported besides a truck that was set alight on Wednesday at around midnight and another on Thursday morning at around 1am, both on the R59 near Daveyton.

Muridili said in both incidents about six men travelling in a vehicle stopped the trucks and fired shots at the drivers.

One driver was critically wounded and rushed to hospital while the other escaped unharmed, Muridili said.

Once the drivers had been removed from the trucks, these were set alight by the suspects, Muridili said, adding that the police have not made any arrests in connection with both attacks.

Muridili said the one truck was travelling northwards while the other was travelling southwards on the R59 at the time of the attacks.

Meanwhile, in response to the growing incidents of attacks and burning of trucks, ministers and senior managers of the departments of Employment and Labour, Home Affairs, Police, Transport and State Security, together with the premier of KwaZulu-Natal – one of the major hotspots of the attacks – engaged this week to adopt a comprehensive response to this criminal activity. This included the following:

• Continued monitoring and intelligence gathering by the security cluster on the origin and nature of these attacks
• Targeting certain areas, expanding resources to optimise their impact on the ground and this had already resulted in a number of arrests of some of the perpetrators this week
• Unveiling some extensive cross-cutting joint measures by our departments and we hope South Africans will understand some of them are likely to inconvenience you
• Continuous engagement with all identified parties and communication on new developments
• The twelve-member Inter-Ministerial Committee established by the President and convened by the Minister of Employment and Labour and Home affairs to amongst others review policy, legislation and regulation in matters of migration and employment has done extensive work in this area. The President will make pronouncement as soon as cabinet has been briefed on progress to date.

According to government, 13 such incidents have taken place in the last month, and between April and November, some 84 attacks had been recorded.

One of the issues behind the attacks was around labour matters, with the issue being around the employment of foreign nationals instead of South Africans as truck drivers.

Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu

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