TimesLIVE reports that a truck driver was chased by attackers after they petrol bombed his vehicle while he was resting on the side of the N1 highway near Touws River in the Western Cape.  

Yolanda Huddlestone, from Huddlestone Logistics, said that 50-year-old Bernard Groenewald sustained serious burns to more than 60% of his body during the attack in the early hours of Sunday morning.  She indicated that the next 48 hours would be critical for the injured driver.  “Our drivers aren’t safe on the roads anymore.  We don’t know where you can park safely,” she stated.  Huddlestone indicated that between 11pm and 4am crime was so bad on the road that in some cases insurance was reluctant to cover losses.  ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said Groenewald was found “some distance” away from the flaming truck.  “He managed to jump out of the truck and was apparently chased by an unknown number of men, who threw another petrol bomb directly at him,” he said.  This was the latest in a series of attacks on truck drivers across the country.  Trucks were torched at the weekend in KwaZulu-Natal.  The Road Freight Association revealed in May that 1,300 trucks had been damaged or destroyed since last year.

• Read the full original of Dan Meyer’s report on this story at TimesLIVE

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