Tag: armed robberies

Armed robbers on the loose

Footage clearly shows two black men walking up to the shop, where there are three staff and no customers, with criminal intent.

The armed robbery has gone viral on YouTube with more than 22 000 views, but no arrests have been made.

The five blacks robbed a jewellery shop in Franschhoek.

On October 2, employees of Tracey’s Diamonds were held at gunpoint by a group of robbers pretending to be customers.

It is understood they drove off in three vehicles.

Over the past few weeks there have been a spate of mall attacks.

The Franschhoek robbery was the sixth attack after those in Canal Walk and two V&A Waterfront robberies. Since then there have been another 10, including the one at Waterstone Village in Somerset West on Sunday and the Paarl Mall robberies on Monday, when staff arrived at the Vodacom, Incredible Connection and King Pie shops to find the premises had been looted.

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut said robbers gained entry through the roof, making off with an undisclosed amount of goods.

Centre manager Faizah Berhadien said Paarl Mall had 24-hour security and all areas were monitored by CCTV.

Police have released pictures of four men linked to the Somerset Mall and Brackenfell Mall robberies. Two have been named as Zandisile Nelani and Siyabonga Gwangqa.

On September 21, a jewellery shop was robbed in Somerset Mall. A cellphone shop was robbed in Brackenfell on May 15.

Pictures of the robbers were obtained from surveillance cameras at the malls.

Traut said: “Two of the suspects have been identified and their photographs have been issued for publication as they are wanted on a charge of armed robbery.”

Traut said Nelani and Gwangqa were also wanted for an earlier robbery.

“They were released on bail following their arrest for an armed robbery… at a cellular telephone shop in Woodstock in March, and they failed to return to court.

SA’s R140bn crime rip-off

South Africa spent R140 billion last year to prevent crime. But, if the latest crime statistics are anything to go by, citizens are not getting value for their money from either the police or security companies.

In the past financial year the government budgeted almost R70bn for the SAPS. That’s taxpayer’s money. But many South Africans don’t just rely on the police – they hire private security companies to protect their homes and businesses.

According to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira), South Africans spent just under R70bn last year with security companies.

On Friday, while releasing the country’s latest crime statistics, Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega pointed out that South Africa’s private security industry was the largest in the world.

Psira has 9 000 registered security companies and over 400 000 security guards on their accredited data base. That’s more people than the police and army combined.

Despite this, South Africans are being robbed when they are in their homes.

This involves some level of violence and happens even though many homes are equipped with hi-tech alarm systems and an armed response service.

According to the latest crime stats countrywide robberies at home went up in one year by 7.4 percent.

In KwaZulu-Natal they dipped slightly this year compared to last year.

Burglaries (when nobody is at home) have remained more or less static in the past decade.

Many businesses have also been robbed even though they employ security guards.

According to the latest crime statistics, in the past year robberies at businesses shot up by more than 10 percent countrywide. In KZN they went up by 15 percent. Over 10 years they went up from 382 cases to 2 707 – an increase of just over 700 percent.

Carjacking continues to be a problem even though most insurance companies insist that even medium-priced new vehicles be fitted with a tracking device.

In the past year, carjacking shot up by more than 12 percent countrywide. In KZN the situation was somewhat better. It fell by just under half a percent and over a 10-year period reflected a downward trend. However, 2 274 people were still put through the trauma of having their vehicles taken, often at gunpoint.

Overall, almost 57 000 vehicles were stolen in South Africa in the last reporting period. About 8 000 of these were taken in KZN.

Economists said taxpayers were not getting value for money from the state and private security companies. Chris Hart, Investment Solutions chief strategist and economist, said: “South African tax is said to be the highest burden in the world. If the country’s 6 to 7 million registered taxpayers are not receiving value for money then this is a big problem.”

He said money spent on security should be money well spent, but instead it was becoming “dead capital” in the economy.

“The police budgets are not being utilised efficiently; if we are spending more than R70bn and not seeing any results, then we have a lot to account for. It reduces growth and the high crime statistics reflect that we have a problem,” said Hart.

Money invested in security is also destroying the economy. The indirect costs incurred from spending billions on security and seeing no results are enormous.

Source: IOL

Armoured vehicles to be deployed at malls in Gauteng

The police will deploy Nyala armoured vehicles at malls across Gauteng in a fight-back against the upsurge in shopping centre robberies by seemingly highly organised gangs.

But detectives made a breakthrough early yesterday when they arrested five men, in raids in Brixton and in Doornfontein, Johannesburg.

The men, aged between 28 and 44, were found with a 9mm pistol and three semi-automatic rifles.

Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Lesetja Mothiba said the men were linked to at least two recent mall robberies, including Saturday’s at Black Chain Shopping Centre, in Diepkloof, Soweto.

They are also suspected of being involved in ATM bombings, taxi violence and robberies at business premises.

The police said there had been 11 robberies at malls across Gauteng since the middle of last month targeting cellphone shops and Apple iStores.

The police said they will strengthen their deployments at 12 Gauteng shopping centres, which they refused to name. Armoured vehicles will be part of the deterrent.

Criminologist Rudolph Zinn said the recent spate of shopping centre robberies had been predicted.

“Two or three years ago there was a security summit and what came out is that these guys are going to start hitting malls.”

He said the reason for this was that hijackings, house robberies and ATM bombings were becoming more difficult to pull off.

Armed security guards are hamstrung in engaging robbers in malls because of the danger of hitting bystanders in a shoot-out.

They are targeting cellphones, said Zinn, because phones are small but have a high black market value.

Hennie Lochner, a senior researcher in the department of police practice at Unisa, said blacklisted phones can be reactivated.

The police are to brief mall managers in Gauteng on improving security.

Source: timeslive.co.za