All cellphones reported stolen are to be blacklisted in future — rendering them immediately unusable, in terms of a new crime-prevention initiative announced by police and cellphone operators on Wednesday.
”This means that criminals will end up with a very expensive paperweight in their pockets,” Cell C spokesperson S’bu Mngadi told a ceremony in Pretoria to witness the signing of an agreement to this effect.
National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi said the initiative will remove the incentive for cellphone theft and robbery, and prevent stolen cellphones being used to commit criminal acts.
It should also reduce instances of murder and assault related to cellphone robbery.
”I am glad we came together to say we need to limit the scope of criminals to use cellphones to further make this country look like a country that is not in control of itself,” Selebi said.
He quoted research indicating that cellphone theft is the sole motive for up to half of robberies in some areas — often leaving the victim dead.
Cellphone theft also contributes to national crime statistics in categories such as robbery, theft and fraud — the latter relating to people reporting false robberies for fear that reporting a mere theft would not qualify them for insurance reimbursement.
All cellphones reported stolen, lost or damaged by their owners will be blacklisted by operators from now on — making the instrument as well as the SIM card immediately useless.
Stolen phones later recovered can be removed from the blacklist.
Owners will have to inform police of the loss of a cellphone, providing a blacklisting number awarded by the cellphone operator. This will be recorded by the police and reported to a national coordinator that is yet to be appointed.
Selebi said a national instruction in this regard was issued on Tuesday to all police stations and provincial commissioners.
To date, there has been no uniform rule on blacklisting. Some operators allow customers to ”greylist” stolen phones — blocking the SIM card but not the handset.
The problem with blacklisting as opposed to greylisting, said Vodacom’s risk management group executive Johan van Graan, is that blacklisted phones cannot be traced.
To this end, Wednesday’s agreement allows operators to reverse a blacklisting at the request of the police for investigation purposes.
Van Graan made an appeal for the initiative to be expanded beyond South Africa’s borders, pointing out that a cellphone blacklisted locally can still be used in another country.
Selebi committed himself to exploring the issue with Southern Africa through the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation and international policing agency Interpol.
South Africa has much influence at these bodies, and will use it to ensure this became a ”global movement”, he said.
MTN said it will indulge clients who had reported their phones stolen by midnight on Tuesday and requested a greylisting for a period of three months, after which these phones will be added to the blacklist. It is the only operator to do so.
Selebi said the government will consider legislation to support the blacklisting initiative. This will include laws making it compulsory for people to report the loss, theft or destruction of cellphones to the police.
Willem Roos, on behalf of the South African Insurance Association, said cellphone theft costs insurers ”millions and millions of rands”.
Reducing instances of cellphone theft will lower the cost of insurance, ”which will be good for the industry and for the peace of mind of consumers”.
Selebi said the agreement has united the business community and the police against a common enemy.
”The private and public sectors have joined forces to stop organised crime syndicates in their tracks,” he said. — Sapa