New plan to curb rising criminal acts

Office-bound police officers will now be thrown into the streets in an effort to curb aggravated robberies as three cash-in-transit vehicles got hit in separate incidents yesterday.

National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole and Police Minister Bheki Cele announced an operation to boost the number of ground forces and introduce 24-hour blue light patrols.

The announcement of the operation, aimed at reducing the rising number of aggravated robberies and targeting “big fish” criminals, was greeted by three cash heists.

In the three separate incidents, armed criminals, some carrying AK-47s, hit cash vans in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga; King William’s Town in the Eastern Cape; and Krugersdorp on the West Rand and fled with undisclosed sums of money.

South Africa has seen cashin-transit heists happening at an average of more than one heist a day since January.

“We are taking police officers from the office to the ground where crime is taking place, and this process is going hand-in-hand with overhauling crime intelligence,” Sitole said.

Although Sitole declined to reveal the number of additional officers to be deployed on the ground as that would benefit criminal syndicates, he said the move was aimed at arresting the worsening crime situation.

Sitole said their 10111 call centre had been “beefed up” to ensure that police also improve their reaction time.

The commissioner said 120 high-powered vehicles would be thrown into police operations to improve reaction to crime incidents.

He said nonconventional policing methods of curbing crime would also be explored, including collaborations with private security.

“There would be helicopters reacting to crime, including those from private security,” Sitole said.

Clad in camouflage uniform, Sitole said: “I will be in this attire until the criminals retire.”

Cele and Sitole lamented the availability of illegal firearms to criminals, with some stolen from police and the army.

“We will be making life very difficult for those who are keeping illegal firearms, we will be knocking on doors... we will visit homes and hostels,” Cele said.

The minister said some of the illegal firearms came from communities as they had been stolen during house robberies and hijackings.