WATCH: Rioters burn vehicles on the N11 Highway

Rioters blocked the N11 highway to Middleburg and Witbank damaging vehicles and setting trucks alight.

Videos of rioters fleeing the scene after police

tyres and rocks strewn across the highway lanes were circulated on social media on Friday morning. The rioting started on Thursday 19 August and continued on Friday morning. 

Watch a video taken at the scene of the riots here:

According to a post on social media the rioters had damaged cars and set more than four trucks alight.

Here is another video taken at the scene:

A spokesperson for the SAPS had not yet responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

The latest riots follow a week of unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in July when widespread looting brought businesses to a complete shutdown on Monday 12 July. The looting cost the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng economies billions of rands in losses and infrastructure damage. KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng combined account for 50% of the country’s GDP and are home to 45 percent of all citizens.

President Cyril Ramaphosa described the unrest as a “deliberate coordinatate…attack on our democracy”. Addressing more than 90 CEO’s at a meeting following the unrest he told business leaders that the entire economy would be hit by the impact of the unrest.

“There is probably no part of the country that will not feel the effects in some form or another because of the way our supply chains work. We cannot understate the impact on the country of the disruption, destruction and looting that took place last week,” Ramaphosa said.

“The evidence that we have indicates that the events last week were part of a deliberate, coordinated and well-planned attack on our democracy, the rule of law and our constitution.  The actions were intended to cripple the economy, cause social instability and severely weaken – or even dislodge – the democratic state,” Ramaphosa said.

He said that those behind the riots, looting and arson had sought to exploit the socio-economic conditions of millions of South Africans, to provoke ordinary citizens and activate criminal networks to engage in opportunistic acts of looting.