BL Premium reports that Agri SA has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy the army to restore calm on national highways after violent attacks have seen 21 trucks set ablaze around the country.

“In its dire economic situation, SA simply cannot afford to surrender vital export revenue to uncontrolled criminal activity,” Agri SA president Jaco Minnaar said. He added that crime intelligence must also be tasked with investigating who was behind these attacks, and the culprits must be charged and brought to book. Meantime, police have increased visibility and identified 12 people allegedly behind the orchestrated attacks on trucks in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo. “Whether it is economic sabotage, labour or service delivery-related disputes, police are closing in on those who choose to use violence and intimidation for whatever motive,” police minister Bheki Cele said at a briefing in Tshwane on Wednesday. He said intelligence suggested that truck attacks “may be business related” and not just random acts of criminality. However Agri SA claimed there was not enough urgency by police. On Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated his call earlier this week for those behind the truck attacks to be arrested.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Hajra Omarjee at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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