The curse of carjacking

Rain hammers down on a Johannesburg night as a woman pulls up outside a suburban house, steps from her car, the engine running, and rings the bell. A man breaks cover from bushes across the street. He slides into the vehicle and begins to reverse. The woman whirls around and screams — her baby is in the back seat. She lunges for the driver’s door. The thief points his revolver and fires. A bullet enters the mother’s belly and she collapses onto the kerb. Her car and baby vanish into the night.

This is a scene from Tsotsi, a South African film nominated for an Oscar, and a rendering of the quintessential South African crime, the carjack.

Acclaimed as a masterpiece by many critics, the film’s success has beamed international attention on to a form of armed robbery which evokes particular dread.

Thousands of motorists are ambushed at gunpoint in South Africa each year. The lucky ones are left by the roadside, shaken and without their cars. The unlucky ones are abducted, raped and murdered.

On Wednesday, staff from the British High Commission attended the National Hijack Prevention Academy, a private course run by former police officers at a racetrack outside Pretoria, which advises diplomats and other clients on how to respond if ambushed. ”Business is fantastic, sad to say, because it means there is a need for this sort of course,” said Richard Brussow, one of the instructors.

Shortlisted for an Oscar for best foreign language film, Tsotsi is the story of a young thug from Soweto who finds redemption after kidnapping his carjack victim’s baby. It is the latest in a new wave of South African films that explore crime and other contemporary issues rather than apartheid, said Guy Willoughby, a cultural commentator and writer whose radio comedy-drama about security companies, Armed Response, will be broadcast next month.

”Car hijacking is an especially rich subject. It is the meeting point between the affluent and poor worlds, the exact moment when you are vulnerable and the Third World strikes.”

Carjackings peaked at more than 16 000 cases in 1998, prompting one entrepreneur to market a car with a flame-thrower. The annual rate has subsided, with 12 434 reported last year, and commentators say it shows South Africa is maturing and adapting to post-apartheid realities.

The middle class was badly shaken by a surge in violent crime which accompanied democracy and the end of apartheid in 1994. ”In the late 1990s there was so much hysteria, almost a national panic. Hijacking was seen as an existential threat to the middle class,” said Antony Altbeker, a carjacking specialist at the Pretoria-based Institute of Security Studies. ”But now people have come to terms with it more.”

Once the epicentre of South African crime, Johannesburg and the surrounding Gauteng province have experienced a dramatic drop of 35% in the past two years, according to Lorinda Nel of Business Against Crime, a lobby group which works with police and private security companies. ”Things are looking up for us,” she said.

But for a few days last week hysteria returned when a gunman shot a pregnant woman twice in the stomach while she was sitting in the car, killing her unborn child. It was then alleged that the incident was faked as a carjacking to cover up what was actually a murder. The woman’s husband was charged with murder for orchestrating the attack because he doubted he was the baby’s father.

It was the latest twist to anecdotal evidence that many carjackings are fronts for other crimes such as murder or insurance fraud. In the latter, owners sell their cars to criminals and then claim they were robbed. When BMW introduced a lie-detector test with its own insurance scheme, the number of claims fell, said Altbeker.

Yet no one disputes that Tsotsi has depicted a real problem. It is thought that 40% of the vehicles stolen are bound for ”chop shops”, clandestine sites where parts are dismantled and sold, said Altbeker. Another 30% are re-registered, often with the help of corrupt police or transport ministry officials, and sold in South Africa. The rest, particularly luxury 4x4s, are exported and often end up in eastern Europe.

Carjackings tend to peak on Fridays when motorists are more relaxed. Some carjackers work alone, others are foot soldiers deployed by a network of syndicates headed by senior gangsters. A syndicate broken up last year had 22 members, including three junior police officers, who specialised in targeting women drivers for their jewellery.

Experts point out that improved security devices such as alarms, immobilisers and gear locks have encouraged would-be thieves to carjack rather than hotwire because it takes time and skill to start a car without a key. ”We as humans have become the weak link in the car’s security,” said Brussow. ”If they control us then they control the car.”

Robberies tend to leave victims traumatised but unhurt because carjackers know that any assault may invite greater police attention. About a fifth of cases involve physical harm, including rape. ”Males get raped as well,” said Frikkie Page, a senior superintendent with an anti-hijacking taskforce in Johannesburg. ”But unlike females they tend to keep quiet about it; it’s not something they want to advertise.”

Business Against Crime and the police credit Gauteng’s reduced carjacking rate to improved car registration, as well as their 2003 decision to set up a 250-strong anti-hijacking taskforce involving detectives, border authorities, intelligence agents and rapid-response units. In addition to private security and insurance companies, the force works closely with courts and prosecutors who specialise in carjackings.

How to avoid trouble

Tips from South Africa’s National Hijack Prevention Academy, which yesterday gave a day-long course to British diplomats:

— Guardian Unlimited Â