ARMED marauders have again forced truck drivers out of their vehicles before setting them ablaze on a northern stretch of South Africa's N2 highway, the third such attack within the space of two days.
The incident happened at about 10pm, said police, adding that the road, the main route along the country's Indian Ocean coast, remained open.
"It is alleged that a group of armed men attacked the drivers of the two trucks and robbed them of their belongings," a police spokesman said.
"The men were then forced out of their trucks before the trucks were set alight. Police at Empangeni are investigating a case of armed robbery, malicious damage and attempted murder."
Truckers regularly block major roads in South Africa to protest hiring of foreign drivers. The protests threaten trade and employment because 80 per cent of all goods are trucked, according to the Road Freight Association.
Earlier, marauders set fire to five trucks on the N4 highway that links the Johannesburg-Pretoria area to the port of Maputo in neighboring Mozambique. The route is a key corridor for coal and chrome exports from South Africa.
On Sunday, six trucks were torched on the N3 highway that links Gauteng to the port of Durban, Africa's biggest container harbour.
The ongoing attacks have led some companies to move their cargo through ports in neighboring countries instead of those in South Africa.
"If we can't provide secure supply chains, if we can't provide secure roads for goods to migrate in and out of our country, we slowly kill our country," said KDG Logistics manager Abdool Kamdar, which had one of its trucks burnt near Durban.
The latest incidents come two years after South Africa was rocked by seven days of violence in the worst instance of civil unrest since the advent of multiracial democracy in 1994.
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