On an early morning drive to Middleburg from Johannesburg, a 33-year-old driver escaped death when he was attacked by a group of men along the N12, where a truck had been torched.
The driver, who asked not to be named for fear for his life, said he was ambushed by six heavily armed men.
He had stopped along the highway after he saw a truck on fire in the middle of the road.
He thought there was an accident and wanted to help, not knowing that the truck had been set alight by a group of men as violence against foreign truck drivers escalates.
"As I was driving under the bridge on the N12 towards the offramp, I noticed a burning truck on the right side of the road and I slowed down, thinking the driver of the other truck needed help but the worst happened, " said the driver.
The incident happened around 4:42am.
The father of two said six man came up to the front of the truck and began shooting non-stop.
"I knew if I stayed I would die so I immediately opened the door and ran for my life and hid in the bushes," he said.
The driver said he took a leap of faith and ran through six shooting men and escaped.
"I dont know how I survived but I'm just happy to be alive.I prayed very hard as I was running and eventually the men gave up on the chase and went to burn the truck.," he recalled.
"Suddenly I heard an explosion and it was the truck being engulfed by fire. I watched both the trucks burning helplessly and I cried because I imagined myself burning with the truck had I not been brave enough to run for my life.
This incident follows a similar attack where over six trucks were torched two days ago in kwaZulu Natal.
Traffic had to be redirected to the R452 road towards Bronkorspruit then reconnect to the N12 towards Delmas, causing about 30 minutes of delay to motorists.
Metro police and police and firefighters flooded the scene to assist the drivers and manage the scene that took over seven hours to be cleared and cleaned.
Police spokesperson Colonel Brenda Moridini said police had opened cases for burning of the trucks and appealed to the public to use the crime stop number, 0800 10111, to alert police about any knowledge and information on the trucks being tortured.
"We are taking these attacks as pure criminality because it's when we look back into the history the truck attacks we see that it's no longer an issue of labour matters and the hiring of foreign drivers. Local drivers are also being attacked and tortured, so we are looking for all the suspects and we are positive that we will make arrests," Moridini said .
She said the hot spots were the N3 towards the Vosloorus, the Bronkorspruit, Alberton and recently the N12.
