One of the alleged truck arsonists, who was seen in high quality camera footage pouring a flammable substance and setting the truck on fire, has been arrested in Mpumalanga and helped police with information to secure the arrest of another suspect.
Police are now confident more arrests, including those of alleged ringleaders behind the truck attacks, will follow.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe told IOL on Thursday that one of the two suspects arrested was one of the alleged arsonists who had been captured setting the truck alight with a flammable substance.
She said he was the first suspect to be arrested and police now expect to make more arrests, including those of the alleged ringleaders behind the fiery truck attacks.
On Wednesday, Police Minister Bheki Cele said the police had identified 12 persons of interest with respect to the fiery truck attacks which have gripped the country since Sunday.
To date, at least 21 trucks have been torched in KZN, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.
Bester Maree of mining security firm ACSU, told Talk Radio 702 on Thursday that they received video footage of the alleged arsonist from one of their clients, a truck owner, and they decided to share the footage far and wide in the hope that the suspect would be identified.
He said the police made a breakthrough on the case at about 5 pm on Wednesday, after one of the alleged arsonists ex-employers identified him and cooperated with investigators.
“We made the footage public and we circulated it around our WhatsApp groups and it went viral.
“A lot of information came in from a lot of people identifying this guy, and actually around 5 pm last night, we got confirmation of a potential suspect and his ex-employer called and confirmed it is the very same guy and they know him,” said Maree.
Maree said they were aware of tensions mainly related to disgruntled employees, who were involved in stoning trucks and occasionally blocking trucks to bemoan the hiring of foreign truck drivers.
He said they did not know if the latest attacks were related, but he said it appeared the wave of truck attacks that was sweeping through the eastern parts of South Africa appeared to be on another level.
“It appears that these truck attacks are part of a bigger thing,” he said.
Maree said he believed that those who were actively torching the trucks were not the planners or the instigators of the truck attacks and he said it would be difficult for the 600 kilometre corridor between Mpumalanga and Empangeni, which is used by trucks delivering coal, to be fully guarded.
“We have to get to the root cause of this, figure out who these people and what is causing them to do this,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Mathe confirmed two male suspects aged aged 27 and 29 had been arrested at their place of residence in Piet Retief and Ermelo respectively.
Both suspects, said Mathe, would face a charge of malicious damage to property.
National police commissioner General Fannie Masemola said police were continuing with high density operations such as roadblocks, stop and searches, and the tracing operations of these wanted suspects.
The SANDF had also been deployed as of Wednesday, Cele said.
“Police are hot on the heels of more suspects which involves the ringleaders of these sporadic incidents of criminality.
“Either they hand themselves over or we fetch them ourselves”, said Masemola.
IOL