Year of the Heist
Here are some of this year’s worst cash-in-transit (CIT) heists, and how the police responded
MAR 5:
Hawks officers Delene Grobelaar, 44, pictured, and Wynand Herbst, 42, shot dead during a shootout with robbers in Mahikeng and later in Coligny, North West. Three robbers killed and two injured.
APR 17 – MAY 29:
11 of SA’s most wanted robbers, led by heist kingpin Thabo Maleka, arrested for heists in Limpopo, Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga. National Anti-CIT Task Team seizes 14 firearms and seven hijacked cars.
MAY 29:
Maleka, 29, right, linked to 40 robberies including heists in Limpopo and Gauteng and the attempted murder of four police officers, shot dead by task team in Diepsloot during an attempt to arrest him.
JUN 6:
Task Team arrest seven robbers in Belfast, Mpumalanga, before planned attack on a post office. Four firearms seized.
AUG 2:
Three attempted heists on Fidelity vehicles within 30 minutes in Flagstaff, Eastern Cape; Kensington, Johannesburg, and Delmas, Mpumalanga, where one guard is killed and another injured.
SEP 5:
CIT cash protection guard killed in a foiled heist on the R38 between Barberton and Badplaas, Mpumalanga.
SEP 13:
Hawks arrest suspected robber, 31, linked to heists in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West, in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.
SEP 22:
CIT gangs launch multiple attacks on Fidelity cash vans in Pimville, Soweto; Witpoortjie in Krugersdorp; and conducted attempted heist in Zambezi Junction, Pretoria. Six suspects arrested.
SEP 23:
Five suspected robbers shot and killed after heist in Boksburg. A police reservist and another suspect are arrested and four firearms recovered.
SEP 29:
Fidelity guard shot during attack at The Glen shopping mall, Johannesburg. Two suspects arrested.
SEP 29:
Police arrest six suspected robbers in Polokwane after they attack and blow up a cash van in Burgersfort, Limpopo. Five firearms and four hijacked vehicles recovered with stolen cash.
OCT 8:
Five police officers and two Fidelity guards shot and wounded during a botched robbery in Rustenburg in which one suspect is killed.
OCT 13:
CIT guard shot and wounded in a botched heist in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town.