Nizaar Marlie
A truck burnt out after being petrol bombed in Duinefontein Rd at Nyanga yesterday. Another truck was also petrol bombed in Durban.
As the two cars boxed in his truck, the driver became nervous. He was certain that he was about to be hijacked.
Then a petrol bomb was thrown from one of the cars on to the truck, setting its trailer and contents alight.
This was the scenario described by M3 Carriers CEO Deva Moodliar yesterday, as one of his vehicles became the latest target in what is believed to be another attack by striking truck drivers on their working colleagues.
The company was taking paper from Mpact’s Felixton Mill, on the North Coast, to Durban on Monday night when the driver noticed two cars following him on the N2 near Zinkwazi, just before 11.30pm.
He became suspicious and tried to take the nearest off-ramp, but the cars blocked him. The petrol bomb was thrown, and the cars sped away.
According to Moodliar, the driver managed to disconnect the trailer from the truck and drove to the nearest police station. The trailer and its load, valued at more than R600 000, went up in flames. Moodliar said that the driver was receiving trauma counselling.
SAPS spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane confirmed the incident was under investigation by KwaDukuza police.
“A case of malicious damage to property was opened at KwaDukuza police station for further investigation. No arrests have been made,” he said.
Another truck driver is fighting for his life in hospital after he was doused in petrol and set alight in Manenberg, in Cape Town. “He’s critical,” a doctor at the GF Jooste Hospital in Manenberg said.
Last night he was transferred to a private hospital, said Helene Rossouw, spokeswoman for Western Cape Health MEC Theuns Botha.
Also in Cape Town, an assistant driver, Gary Stewart, 41, had also fought for his life after an attack, but on Monday he died when his family switched off his life support machines.
Meanwhile, unions and employers were set to meet again today in an attempt to resolve the truck drivers’ strike, now in its third week. Two unions said they would suspend their strike activities while wage negotiations continued.
