The government is scrambling to find answers as 10 more trucks were torched across KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, bringing the tally of confirmed violent attacks to 16 in just three days and putting further pressure on SA’s unstable economy.
Since the weekend attack on six trucks on the N3 in KwaZulu-Natal, violence has spread to the vital N4, which is the corridor to Mozambique, the N3 north-south corridor and to the N1 to Limpopo near Sekhukhune.
“These attacks aren’t about the corner at your local store, they are on the main routes on the corridors. This is co-ordinated,” Road Freight Association (RFA) CEO Gavin Kelly said.
The attacks, which have conjured up memories of the 2021 violence described by the government as a failed insurrection, also shine a harsh spotlight on the ability of state security to prevent, investigate and prosecute economic sabotage and organised crime.
Insiders in the State Security Agency and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s national crisis committee on logistics and crime said this week’s events bore all the hallmarks of the torching of trucks before the 2021 riots in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal that precipitated looting in the two provinces.
Thousands of businesses were razed and more than 300 people were left dead, but police have not yet made any significant arrests. “It has been orchestrated and executed in exactly the same manner. This is economic sabotage,” said a State Security Agency source.
Ramaphosa, who on Monday also described the violent crime as “economic sabotage”, has set up a team to investigate the truck attacks. So far neither the perpetrators nor the motive for the attacks has been identified.
The police ministry is expected to give a briefing on Wednesday about the SAPS response to acts of violence targeting freight trucks.
The RFA estimated that the capital losses including assets and cargoes from the initial attack on the six trucks destroyed amounted to anything between R18m and R60m. These cost are expected to mount as the situation escalates.
Lamenting not only the financial effect on the sector, Kelly warned that as it becomes more difficult for the trucking industry to guarantee safe delivery of cargo, international traders are seeking other entries to the rest of Africa.
Lost trade
“They are just saying we are not going to move stuff through SA because the risk is too great, the delays are too long in the ports, and the inefficiencies are costing us too much,” Kelly said, adding that SA’s “gateway to Africa” status has been lost and the attacks will further cement the move of transit freight from SA to neighbouring countries.
Grindrod is among the JSE-listed companies that have already redirected cargo from Durban ports to Maputo.
Owing to poor rail infrastructure, the road freight sector carries 80% of the goods that are moved in and about SA, and a diversion of traffic presents a significant economic loss.
JSE-listed industrial transport company Super Group, which is worth R11.1bn, said while none of its trucks had been caught up in the fresh wave of violence, it was concerned for the safety of its people, trucks and cargo and had put measures in place for protection. These include vehicle and load tracking, SmartLock systems on the trucks, as well as cameras, anti-hijacking devices and armed escorts for high-value products.
Security analyst Lizette Lancaster said the government’s failure to enforce labour laws was also an issue, resulting in anger against logistics companies which were seen to be hiring foreign nationals at the expense of locals.
Fluctuating home affairs rules and deadlines and lackadaisical inspections by the labour ministry had also contributed to agitating local drivers over the past six years, Kelly said, noting that violent crimes against the trucking sector over the hiring of foreign drivers were rampantly perpetrated with impunity.
He said the labour department needs to act quicker to address anticompetitive behaviour by employers to ensure employees are all legal and paid the minimum while given the minimum rights under the Labour Relations Act.
“The fact (is) that there are transporters in our sector who employ foreigners because they are illegal and they can pay far less than the minimum wage.”
Kelly noted a decline in violent attacks and complaints after the home affairs minister declared that the Zimbabwean exemption permit (ZEP) would expire.
But with the ministry again extending the expiry of the permits to the end of December 2023, he said: “One can say that infuriated the All Truck Drivers Foundation (ATDF) and their supporters and that is probably one of the major contributors why we see them active on the roads again.”
The high court in Pretoria in June declared home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s decision to discontinue the ZEP was unconstitutional and invalid. The ATDF was not available for comment.
Warning that “without trucks, SA stops”, Kelly said the long-term effect would be felt in terms of increased security costs, higher insurance premiums and Sasria cover premiums, less freight movement through SA, closure of freight companies and job losses.
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