Jabula Plant Hire denies its truck ploughed into #BlackMonday protest

Jabula Plant Hire says its truck did not plough into a number of vehicles on the N4 in Mpumalanga during a #BlackMonday motorcade protest action against farm murders.

The accident occurred as thousands across the country took to the highways and cities to protest over the perceived increase in attacks on farmers and farm workers.

Three people were injured.

Pictures posted on social media groups blamed Jabula Plant Hire‚ a company based in Heidelberg‚ Gauteng‚ for the collision.

However‚ Jabula MD Plant Hire MD Jaco Pretorius said his company was not responsible for the accident.

“While we are greatly saddened by the accident that took place this morning we would like to clarify that the cause of the accident was not due to the negligence of our driver or caused by the truck he was driving‚” Pretorius said.

Pretorius said the driver of its company’s vehicle was trailing another vehicle from an unknown transporter at approximately 15 km/h when he saw the commotion ahead of him as well as the slow-moving traffic due to the motorcade.

“The driver then slowed down to a stop when he heard loud braking and collision sounds from behind.

“As our driver observed to the rear to determine the cause of the braking sound‚ a truck belonging to Medina Transport then proceeded to drive past our truck‚ ploughing into the vehicles ahead‚” Pretorius said.

He said according to Jabula Plant Hire’s driver‚ it appeared that the driver of the other truck lost control of his vehicle while trying to avoid the slow-moving cars.

“We would like to reiterate that although our truck was pictured in the photographs taken‚ our truck was not the truck that ploughed into the vehicles and in no way was this incident due to any wrong doing of Jabula Plant Hire’s driver.”

Pretorius said it would provide DriveCam footage from the Jabula Plant Hire vehicle to the necessary authorities to aid in their investigation.