With at least 16 trucks set on fire during a wave of attacks in the past week, the police management will provide more details on Wednesday about the police’s response to the violence.
Lt. Gen. According to reports, National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola said roadblocks will be set up by the police on all the main routes in an effort to prevent attacks. Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner, has apparently also assembled a high-level police team to investigate the latest wave of attacks.
The DA said it will file a case against the truck attackers in terms of anti-terror legislation. Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA MP and spokesperson on state security, demands that the SAPS conduct a full and proper investigation into the recent attacks on trucks in Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
“These are not isolated incidents. The sheer accuracy and efficiency indicate a disturbing level of coordination that has succeeded in outwitting the SAPS. This is a glaring indictment of our police service’s crime intelligence and senior management, who seem to have no solution on how to prevent these attacks.”
The civil rights organization AfriForum has meanwhile appealed to Bheki Cele, minister of police, to urgently call together a multifaceted task force to arrest the persons responsible for the recent truck fires.
Johan Kruger, strategic advisor at AfriForum, believes that Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa as well as Cele urgently need to show leadership to curb this wave of truck fires before the situation escalates further.
“It is clear that this is a coordinated effort by groups to commit sabotage, terrorize truck drivers and cause economic damage to transport companies and the country’s economy. Urgent intervention at various levels is now needed and Cele cannot bury his head in the sand now,” says Kruger.
“The SAPS’s inability to act quickly and decisively has caused great damage to the country in the past and is simply a free pass for these criminals to continue with coordinated efforts to destabilize the country.”
