The government needs a plan to deal with the increasing number of cash-in-transit heists and other armed robberies, especially over the festive season, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Wednesday.
”Government must take urgent steps to ensure a safe festive season,” DA spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard said in a statement.
She added that with the festive season only three months away, a period ”renowned for an increase in these sorts of crimes”, the government should follow the DA’s five-point plan.
She said immediate minimum security standards needs to be put in place in the cash-in-transit industry. These should include measures to make it impossible for guards to give gangs information on their movements and security details.
Barnard argued that the Serious and Violent Crimes Unit needs to be improved and that the South African Police Service (SAPS) should be conducting well coordinated sting operations and not ”arbitrary and chance arrests”.
She added that more police reinforcements should work together with private security companies to guard ATM machines, shopping centres and banks in the lead-up to Christmas.
Barnard urged the SAPS to set up an investigating committee into police members who are assisting crime syndicates, and to look into claims that casinos are laundering stolen cash-in-transit money.
”If the minister of safety and security is serious about bringing this problem under control, he needs to take urgent action, because it is quite clear that current provisions are not working effectively,” she said.
Statistics released by the SAPS last week revealed a massive 74,1% increase in the number of cash-in-transit heists in 2005/06, compared with 2004/05.
”The heists increased from 220 to 383 in one year,” said Barnard. The statistics also showed an increase in car hijackings (3,1%), truck hijackings (10,9%) and bank robberies (1,7%).
Barnard said it was clear that while murder and rape rates had stabilised, the police were ”currently unable” to combat the rise in heavily armed and well-organised crime syndicates, despite claims to the contrary, she said. — Sapa