Cash heists on the rise again

At least one every day since the beginning of the year

THERE has been at least one cash-intransit (CIT) heist a day nationally since the beginning of the year, and more than half of these took place in Gauteng.

A total of 35 CITS have been recorded in the country since the start of the year, and 21 of these were committed in Gauteng.

The robberies had almost stopped for a few months following a harrowing 2018 that saw 179 CITS being committed between January and July of that year.

Yesterday, the N3 highway near Spruitview, Ekurhuleni, was brought to a standstill after a cash van was bombed during an attempted robbery.

The driver of the vehicle was shot in the head and left in a critical condition.

A video on social media showed four suspects attempting to rob the vehicle in front of other motorists. The suspects then fled in a white BMW closely followed by a white VW Polo.

On Monday, a gang of heavily armed men pushed a cash van off the road in Kempton Park, forcing it open with explosives before shooting the driver and fleeing with an undisclosed amount of cash.

ER24 spokesperson Ineke van Huyssteen said the driver was shot in the head and was stabilised at the scene before being flown by helicopter to hospital.

The chief executive of the South African Banking Risk Information Centre,

Susan Potgieter, said that since 2020 began there had been about 35 CIT incidents nationally.

Gauteng had experienced 21 incidents in the past two months. Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga had had three incidents each, Kwazulunatal and Western Cape had two incidents each and Northern Cape had one, she said.

National police spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo said not all the CIT incidents were categorised as heists. An incident is only considered a heist if the suspects get away with money.

“We, as the joint security forces deployed to deal with this, more often than not are able to foil them, together with the security companies. There will always be attempts. However, the question is the measures we have in place to mitigate that risk,” he said.

Naidoo added that the security forces had put measures in place to tackle heist gangs, but the gangs came back with new modi operandi.

“Before it was happening a lot in the suburbs and business areas, and then they moved to rural areas and now they’re coming to the highways. They are trying to be a step ahead of us, but we’re always catching up with the modi operandi,” said Naidoo.

Dr Hennie Lochner, a senior lecturer in forensic and criminal investigation science at Unisa, said there wasn’t any one specific reason why more heists were happening. However, he added that the heists were not being conducted by the same gangs.

“After a successful CIT robbery each of them goes their own way, and then immediately after that each and every one is looking for a new target. If I identify the possible target I will phone the previous group members and say ‘I have information on this. Let us start planning,’” he said.

Lochner said if the police apprehended a gang but didn’t get every member of the gang, the heists would continue.

Anti-crime advocate Yusuf Abramjee said it was worrying that CIT robbers had become so brazen, and that they were using explosives to blow up the vans.

“The quicker the police get the people who are involved in selling and dealing and trading in explosives, the better it will be. But it seems to me a number of gangs are coming back largely in Gauteng,” Abramjee said.