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Unidentified assailants attacked freight trucks on South Africa’s roads for a fourth straight day as lawmakers urged the police to take urgent action to stop the violence.
Four trucks are on fire on the N2 highway in the eastern Mpumalanga province, Johannesburg-based broadcaster eNCA reported on Wednesday. A vehicle was also ablaze in Gauteng, the commercial hub, the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corp reported on Wednesday, though other news outlets later said no foul play was suspected.
Wednesday’s incidents follow attacks on at least 15 other trucks in the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo since the weekend, according to a statement by a lawmakers’ committee. They coincide with the second anniversary of the worst rioting in South Africa since the end of apartheid, when violence left 354 people dead and cost the economy an estimated R50 billion ($2.7 billion).
“We are calling on whoever is behind this act of mayhem to stop it and we are appealing on the police to act with speed in curbing it and apprehending its perpetrators,” Kenneth Mmoiemang, the chairman of parliament’s Select Committee on Transport, Public Service and Administration, Public Works and Infrastructure, said in the statement. The committee backed a plan by President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish a team to investigate “this economic sabotage,” he said.
Police Minister Bheki Cele is scheduled to address the media later on Wednesday about a plan to address the attacks.
Trucks ferry about 80% of all the goods moved in and around South Africa because the state-owned railway lacks the capacity to handle the freight. Attacks on the industry stem from competition over routes and a disputes over the hiring of foreign drivers.
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