78 stolen, hijacked vehicles recovered
Cops say syndicate target guesthouses as owners sleeping
SEVENTY-EIGHT stolen and hijacked vehicles were recovered by a South African Police Service unit working in Mthatha in an operation that began in November last year.
Commander of Mthatha’s Vehicle Crime Investigation Unit (VCIU) Colonel Fezile Mgolombane said 48 of these vehicles were Hyundai H100 trucks.
“Most of these H100 trucks are stolen because they have the potential to generate income as these are a popular mode of transport in rural communities,” he said.
The rest of the vehicles comprised a variety of sedans, tractors, trucks and bakkies.
Mgolombane said investigating the cases was a long process and not easy because often there are no witnesses.
“Most of these were stolen from guesthouses while the owner is asleep and he has no information but even where one has been hijacked that experience is often so traumatic and induces fear that the owner is unable to give the investigators any leads. This requires our unit to adopt new strategies that would assist,” he said.
Mgolombane said investigations revealed that there was a syndicate operating in and around the coastal Ngqeleni area and in November last year a task-force was established to break the syndicate.
“The operation was formed to deal specifically with vehicle crime and was conducted jointly by our unit with the assistance of the VCIU Aliwal North but we often sourced reinforcements from other units and we were also assisted by various guesthouses to set up traps and that yielded results,” said Mgolombane.
He said most of the recovered vehicles were reported missing between 2015 and 2017. He added that the unit continues to operate.
“When we recovered these vehicles some of them were being driven and others were abandoned in dongas and often required the use of helicopters to retrieve them. Thirtytwo of these were stolen within the province, others were stolen in KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape,” he said.
During the operation police found that several vehicles had been “altered” or had their identification numbers changed .
Mgolombane said eight suspects, aged between 20 and 50 years old, were arrested during the operation and more arrests were expected as investigations progress.
“We are busy engaging with the owners of 16 vehicles,” he said adding that while vehicle crimes were on the rise, the work of the unit had led to a reduction in vehicle crime in the area.
Mgolombane warned members of the community to be cautious when buying vehicles from private sellers who advertise on various media platforms and to rather approach SAPS to verify the car before making a purchase. —