Gangs cash in early on cash vans
Robbers are making up for time lost during the lockdown
SA’s cash heist season has struck early, with armed gangs carrying out waves of deadly attacks in which at least 56 people died and dozens were wounded.
The surge began in August, two months ahead of the annual November peak.
Criminologists and cash-in-transit companies blamed it on the easing of the lockdown. South African Banking Risk Information Centre data shows a 29% increase between 2019 and 2020.
Gauteng and Mpumalanga bore the brunt, with 173% and 46% increases respectively.
The Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority in a briefing to parliament in 2018 said 2,500 people transported about R136bn every day.
IziCash’s Phillip Shaw survived six heists in 2019 and two in 2020. Recently he watched a colleague being killed.
“They shot him once in the chest. When he fell, they shot him three times in the head. There is no mercy. Robbers go out to kill everyone on the van.”
A Fidelity guard, who asked to be identified only as Joe, said: “In the first three months that I started working I survived two heists. In the first, at a Johannesburg petrol station this year, I was shot six times in the chest. My ancestors protected me because the bullets hit my [bulletproof] vest. I shot one guy. The guys escaped with an empty cash bag.”
The Hawks did not respond to detailed questions this week, but companies carrying cash said 37 guards had been killed this year.
Fidelity, which has the most cash-carrying vans, had 33 guards murdered, G4S had three and IziCash one.
Police sources said 17 robbers were killed in attacks and about 30 wounded. According to media reports two Hawks officers were killed this year and five hurt.
The risk information centre’s data shows that between January 1 and October 12 there were 167 heists, with attacks on 90 vans and 77 cross-pavement attacks. During the same period last year there were 149 heists, with 70 vehicles attacked.
The Cash-in-Transit Association of SA said the death toll of guards was the highest in years.
The association’s spokesperson, Grant Clark, said there was a big increase in vehicle attacks from August. “With the easing of lockdown restrictions, heists increased. Loss of life is higher than previous years.”
Clark said police and the companies were, however, achieving successes.
Unisa criminologist professor Rudolph Zinn said: “The gangs are making up for their financial losses under lockdown. These robbers live affluent lives with some having children in private overseas schools. They need money.”
He said police should prevent the attacks through good intelligence, but were often only reacting to the attacks. “The criminals know they can’t be stopped, which makes them brazen.”
Zinn said the gangs would have used the lockdown to “ready for war”.
“We are in for a tough time,” he said. Fidelity CEO Wahl Bartmann said the attacks were “unacceptably high, especially in Gauteng, where there has been almost one attack every day since the beginning of 2020”.
He said at the end of September 2019, Fidelity recorded 58 attacks.
“For the same period in 2020, this increased to 84 incidents. Of these attacks 25% were successfully defended.”
IziCash CEO Albert Erasmus said: “October and November are usually the heist peak, but this year it began in August and has not stopped. The syndicates are playing catch-up after the lockdown.
“What we have seen, in terms of intensity and frequency of attacks, is definitely not normal. At one point the industry was running from one attack to another without really getting time to regroup. On certain days in Gauteng there were up to four attacks a day on different CIT companies.
“There are just so many syndicates out there. The storm has hit.”
He said that in August IziCash had fought off three attacks. “One of our guards and seven robbers were killed. One of our guards also shot and killed one of SA’s main bombers, who was one of the go-to guy for gangs to blow up vans.”
Security company SBV had only one attack this year, which was unsuccessful, said spokesperson Flavia de Cilla.
“The increase is only partly attributed to the current economic situation. The inability of the industry and authorities to respond timeously to the changing risks [is also responsible],” she said.
Renso Smit, SA’s managing director of G4S, said the company had seen an increase in heists over the past two months, including an increase in the violence of the attacks.
There had been a decrease in the amount
of cash stolen this year compared with previous years.
He attributed this to the significant investments made to protect employees and cash. “Due to less cash being lost, the number of attacks remains high,” said Smit.
SBV CEO Mark Barrett said there was
“most definitely the risk” insurance premiums may increase significantly and become unaffordable if cash-van robberies escalate.
He said that there was also a risk that in SA the market for transferring cash by van becomes uninsurable.