DURBAN – A prominent national office bearer of the All Truck Driver Forum South Africa is behind bars after allegedly inciting violence along the N3 highway in the early hours of Saturday morning (30 May).

The man was one of three people arrested by KwaZulu-Natal police along the highway in Bergville.

Police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said officers were conducting patrols along the N3 southbound when they realised traffic had slowed down and come to a sudden standstill. “The police officers went to investigate and found about 10 people who were stopping trucks,” he explained.

“Realising the presence of the police, the suspects fled in to the [nearby] bushes and abandoned their vehicle, a white Isuzu bakkie. All the doors of the vehicle were open.”

Search on scene

Netshiunda said preliminary investigations uncovered that the vehicle is owned by a prominent All Truck Driver Forum South Africa (ATDF-SA) officer bearer.

“Inside the bakkie, police found an ATDF-SA banner and stones. While at the scene, a suspicious white Volkswagen Polo was spotted on the N3 northbound,” he added.

“Police followed the vehicle and found that it had come to pick up the owner of the abandoned bakkie. The driver of the Polo and his passenger, both identified as truck drivers, were arrested together with the driver of the bakkie they had come to rescue.”

The bakkie owner and ATDF-SA office bearer was positively linked with the stoning of a bus on the N3 Colenso interchange mere moments before the arrests.

The suspects are being processed, and more charges could be added at a later stage.