Cape Town - The Cash-In-Transit Association of SA has revealed that cash-in-transit heists increased by 19% in the first two months of this year compared with the same period last year.
This comes after the association said 43% of CIT robberies occurred in Gauteng, followed by the Eastern Cape with 21%, while 36% of such crimes took place on Mondays.
Speaking to SAfm, the association’s spokesperson, Grant Clark, said this was the highest increase the country had ever seen in the last five years. It was concerning, and law enforcement needed to deal with it as soon as possible.
Clark said they were of the view that the criminals who performed these kinds of crimes were well organised, and until they were caught the situation would get worse in the cash-in-transit sector.
“The industry itself has spent a lot money in terms of technology and bringing the standards of their vehicles up to avoid the rise of these organised crimes.”
“Unfortunately, these syndicates are very well organised, and the modus operandi is to use explosives to run vehicles of the road. They use these explosives to gain access to the cash.
“The stronger we make the vehicles, the more explosives they bring. I think we have seen it in the recent number of incidents in areas like Gauteng, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, where there has been massive damage to people’s properties in terms of the amount of explosives these criminals use,” Clark said.
Clark said they had been holding back-to-back meetings with the police last week in a bid to collaborate with them on how to work together to address the situation.
He said the gangs were quite large and there were a lot of people involved in these crimes, so the situation required a serious intervention.
Clarke said it was clear that most of these crimes were committed by people of high intelligence who had previously worked for the military.
IOL