“This guy needs to be shot. He needs to be shot and killed by those of us who were with him. What gave him the idea to jump into the truck, because there are cameras [in there]?”
These are the chilling words of an unidentified collaborator with the notorious truck burner who was caught on camera this week brazenly setting fire to a truck on the N2 between Piet Retief and Ermelo.
The Sunday Times is in possession of two WhatsApp voice recordings that cast a stark light on the truck burnings that struck the country this week, described by police minister Bheki Cele as “economic sabotage”.
Listen:
The truck burner caught on video [dashcam] was one of three people arrested this week, but the voice recordings suggest he has more to fear from his fellow gang members than from the police.
In the first voice note, the unidentified man is heard criticising the actions of the man whose face was shown in the truck's cabin camera.
“You see what this guy did was a load of sh*t. He’s going to expose those who were with him. This guy needs to be shot ... If he wanted to jump in there, he should have used a kopperhead (balaclava). When you do anything illegal you need to use a kopperhead. He’s going to reveal some of the people who were with him. And they will all be prosecuted.”
In response, another voice says: “The sun has set on him. He confuses me because he’s a driver and he knows that those cameras expose everything. He should have used a kopperhead or something to cover his face. Now a lot of people are going to be arrested. Our leader was asked about these incidents and he denied that ATDF [All Truck Drivers Forum] was behind these attacks and that it’s just thuggery. Now they’re going to find out that this guy is a member of ATDF. What the hell has he done?”
Mandla Mngomezulu, ATDF’s deputy chair, has denied his organisation was behind the truck burnings, but said it could not rule out the involvement of some “aggrieved” members.
The torching of 21 trucks in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga this week has led to the deployment of the South African National Defence Force.
The arrest of a man believed to be the person caught on dashcam footage led police to apprehend two others. Police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said the first two suspects were arrested in Piet Retief and the third in Emalahleni.
She said all three suspects will face charges of malicious damage to property. They are due to appear in the Ermelo magistrate’s court on Monday.
A police source close to the investigations revealed that the voice notes originated from “one of numerous” ATDF WhatsApp groups started with the intention of co-ordinating attacks on trucks across the country.
“There are quite a few WhatsApp groups that these guys have, but they are all related to ATDF,” he said.
With these voice notes and other evidence, police believe they have infiltrated the group responsible for the economic sabotage.
A senior police officer close to the task team said they have uncovered the groups' modus operandi.
“We have intelligence on them and also found communication on their phones. These are disgruntled drivers who say they are tired of the hiring of foreign truck drivers and cheap labour. There are more arrests coming; we are breaking them.”
He said they had established that there was a network of people across provinces planning attacks.
Police minister Bheki Cele said this week that police had identified 12 people of interest. It is unclear if the three arrested men are a part of the group.
Police made a breakthrough in the arson attacks with help from Anti Crime Security Unit (ACSU), a private security company based in Ermelo, which tracked down the suspect caught on the dashcam after circulating his photo. He was traced to a farm about 30km outside Piet Retief.
We have intelligence on them and also found communication on their phones. These are disgruntled drivers who say they are tired of the hiring of foreign truck drivers and cheap labour. There are more arrests coming; we are breaking them
— Senior police officer
Bester Maree, an ACSU investigator, told the Sunday Times: “We circulated that video and his picture, then a lot of guys called us and one of them said he’s got the right information about who he is and where he stays.”
Maree said they were able to track down the second and third suspects after retrieving information from the first man's cellphone.
Maree said the attacks were being carried out by ATDF members and that the man caught on the dashcam was a member.
“The motive for these attacks is extortion. They’ve got a ‘stick in the hand’ [approach], where they go to these trucking companies with demands. They tell them they are not allowed to do this or that, that they want their guys to be employed, they don't want cameras in the trucks, they want to work the hours that they want to work and they must get the pay that they want. The group initially started with the foreign national thing and now they are just extorting trucking companies.”
The ATDF has been at loggerheads with the government over the employment of foreign nationals in the trucking industry.
“We can't deny or confirm that some of these attacks are being carried out by some of our members because people are upset,” Mngomezulu said. “But as far as we know, we are not involved. All we ever wanted was for trucking companies to hire South Africans, to improve our pay, and to do away with cameras in trucks because it's a violation of privacy.”
He said an 11-point plan created at an imbizo a year ago aimed at addressing the grievances of truckers who blocked major arterial routes, set vehicles alight and brought the economy to its knees, had stalled.
The plan was adopted after agreement was reached between the road and freight interministerial committee and industry stakeholders. It covered issues such as the appointment of a task team, enforcing visa requirements and the registration of operators.
“There have been more than three task teams created since 2020, but nothing is being done,” Mngomezulu said.
He said a stakeholder meeting was scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the burning of trucks and the implementation plan would be the main agenda.
But national transport spokesperson Collen Msibi said most of the points in plan were being implemented.
He said key to the implementation was the issuing of traffic register numbers to drivers once their legal status had been validated. The department was working with home affairs on finalising the system, but he was unable to give time frames.
National labour department spokesperson Teboho Thejane said it was conducting both proactive and reactive inspections across all sectors.
The Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the incidents were sabotaging the economy and threatened to impact the logistics chain.
It said that according to eThekwini municipality's Durban EDGE, a platform set up to provide economic intelligence, it is estimated that when the logistics sector is not fully operational (due to the torching of trucks and blocking of key corridors such as N3, N2 and M7), it loses R800m in gross value added (GVA) per month.
“A number of truck owners have been considering stopping the transport of goods during the night as this poses a huge risk and threat to their businesses and their driver‘s lives are put in danger.”
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