Sanral insisted on Thursday that a man arrested in connection with threats against the company was technically not one of its employees.<\/p>\n
SA National Roads Agency Limited spokesman Vusi Mona said the building where the man was arrested was occupied by Electronic Toll Collection (ETC).<\/p>\n
“And the individual arrested works for a service provider on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) and is not a Sanral employee, as has been mistakenly reported,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“The arrest should send a message that while peaceful protest is every citizen’s right, actions like threatening that a bomb is on the premises or any other hoax, is a serious offence.”<\/p>\n
He applauded the Hawks for arresting the 28-year-old Soweto man.<\/p>\n
“We strongly condemn such actions. The swift police action is an indication of how seriously such hoaxes are seen,” said Mona.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old man was accused of involvement in two white powder scares and a bomb scare at Sanral headquarters in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n
“We are convinced that we netted the mastermind behind all three incidents,” Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ramaloko earlier announced in a statement: “Yesterday afternoon [Wednesday], the Organised Crime Unit of the Hawks in Gauteng arrested a 28-year-old employee of the South African National Road Agency (Sanral) on charges relating to acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n
“The man was arrested at Sanral’s Central Operations Centre in Centurion while on duty. During his arrest a cellphone, suspected of having been an instrument used to commit the offence, was seized,” Ramaloko said.<\/p>\n
The man was tracked down through a call made from his cellphone.<\/p>\n
“We linked him via his cellphone which was used to make a call. We are not sure if he was operating the cellphone alone,” said Ramaloko.<\/p>\n
The bomb scare took place on Sunday. The building was evacuated and a sweep carried out. No bomb was found.<\/p>\n
The premises was also evacuated on Tuesday and Friday after a suspicious powder, initially feared to be anthrax, was found.<\/p>\n
ETC later reported that the substance was harmless.<\/p>\n
The man was expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Friday on charges relating to acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n
E-tolls blamed for the rise in cloned plates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n E-tolls unaffected by bomb threat<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Sanral accused of collusion on e-tolls<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n