Cash-in-transit heists a seasonal occurrence – security expert

Cash-in-transit (CIT) heist syndicates are back in full swing, along with other violent criminal operations.

On Monday, following numerous reports of attempted and executed CIT heists and armed robberies, it was clear there has been an increase in these crimes over the past six weeks.

According to Gareth Newham, head crime researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, the official statistics on crime in October and November this year will resemble those which were recorded last year, despite the apparently heavy onslaught following the lifting of lockdown restrictions.

“Cash-in-transit heists tend to go up around November, December. It’s not unusual for these crimes to increase around this time every year since the gangs that are involved in these operations are raising money for the festive season.

“So you will always see an uptick in CITs. This time there really has been a notable increase. A lot of companies have noted that the spike started around October, so we will be seeing a lot more of these cases in the next month or two.”

But viewing South Africa’s crime problem was an opportunity to dissect some of the phenomena which contribute to crime, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the view of Claire Taylor, researcher at Gun Free South Africa, who raised key points highlighting the need for stricter gun regulations emanating from recent data collected in the Western Cape.

The research, which looked at violent crime under strict Covid-19 lockdown from 29 March to 9 May, showed crime in the province declined. The researchers proposed a few reasons for this, most notably the ban on alcohol sales, restriction of people’s movement and policing around lockdown regulations.

Newham said SA would only be privy to just how bad things went after the hard lockdown when Police Minister Bheki Cele released the quarterly crime stats, possibly on Friday.

“During the lockdown there was a huge reduction in crime, such as business robberies and burglaries, and that was most likely because of the heightened policing in that period.”

But a third of the top 30 precincts in the country recorded an increase in murders during alert Levels 4 and 5 of lockdown. These were mainly gang-related and gun-related. While the drivers of crime were complicated, said Taylor, inequality and poor policing were contributors. But Newham argued that data disagreed with the widely accepted notion that criminals are borne out of poverty.

“If you look at crime trends around South Africa, some of the poorest areas in the country have a relatively low crime rate,” he said.

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