First alleged truck arsonist apprehended

One of the men believed to have been responsible for the arson attacks that saw four trucks torched on the N2 between Piet Retief and Ermelo in Mpumalanga has been apprehended.

A private security firm contracted by one of the companies whose trucks were burnt on Wednesday apprehended the man just outside Piet Retief.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Brig Selvy Mohlala told the Sowetan that no one has been arrested.

The private security company's operations manager Bester Maree said they caught the man in the early hours of Thursday following an intelligence driven operation and handed him over to cops at around about 3am.  The man, whose identity is known by Sowetan, has been charged with malicious damage to property.

So far, 21 trucks have been torched in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Gauteng in what has been described as coordinated attacks. 

On Wednesday, police minister Bheki Cele announced that 12 people of interest have been identified through investigation and intelligence collection with most of them located in the northern KZN area. 

Cele said evidence pointed to "organised coordinated and sophisticated operations that seek to undermine and sabotage the state".

National police commissioner Fannie Masemola said cops were in possession of videos they were analysing and would "follow up on those people that are on those videos".

In one of the recent videos, a dashcam from a truck's cabin shows the driver stopping his vehicle and then talking to the person who had stopped him through the window.

He then gets out of the truck and another man wearing a hoodie takes the driver's seat and starts spraying a flammable substance on the bed behind and sets the truck on fire.