In this regard, Paul Nordengen, Director of Africa’s Heavy Vehicle Transport Technology Division, expressed his belief that concrete action is needed to protect the country’s trucks, drivers and economy.
What has happened in the past few days is tragic, he said. From an economic point of view, the closure of roads due to robberies obviously has a large impact on the movement of goods.
He explained that many transport companies have contracts with very low margins, so delays have a big impact on their income, especially for smaller companies.
For its part, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) said in a statement that these attacks amounted to economic sabotage.
According to police, the number of trucks destroyed in arson attacks in the last three days has risen to 16 after five more trucks were set on fire the previous day in KwaZulu-Natal (southeast) and Limpopo (north) provinces.
Eleven of these were torched over the weekend: six in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday and five in eastern Mpumalanga on Sunday.
The 41st Southern Africa Transport Conference is currently taking place in Pretoria, bringing together managers and industry specialists from all over the south of the continent.
For his part, KwaZulu-Natal Police spokesman Jay Naicker said the people involved in the attack on six trucks at Van Reenens Pass on Saturday night have already been identified from video of the incident. mem/mv