Less than eight percent of house robbers get convicted of their crimes in South Africa, while 80% of robberies occur with the help of inside information.
Statistically, eight out of 10 residential robberies are committed with the help of information from maids, gardeners and former employees.
Most home invasions in South Africa occur between 19:00 and midnight as people are relaxing, cooking or watching television, and the security systems and beams are not active.
But robberies continue until 04:00 in the morning.
What is even more shocking than the prevalence of these crimes, is the level of violence that robbers are willing to resort to – an average of 30% of all house robbers have either committed murder, or won’t hesitate to commit murder. Not only are home invaders vicious, but once they start robbing, they simply don’t stop; the average robber commits 103 robberies over seven years before being caught.
As if all of this weren’t depressing enough, conviction rates continue to slowly decrease. The conviction rate for house robberies in South Africa is only 7.67% whilst in the United States of America it is 53%.
On October 12, at approximately 23:00, a man living on a farm situated off of the Verena Road awoke and heard a commotion at his kitchen door.
He got up out of bed, where his wife had been sleeping next to him, and walked over to the bedroom door to go and inspect what had caused the noise.
Upon opening the bedroom door, the man immediately found himself at the dangerous end of a gun.
The suspect who was wielding the gun then stormed into the bedroom, and whilst continuing to brandish the weapon, tied up the man with his own belt and his wife with shoelaces.
The man’s brother, who had been sleeping in a different room, was also ambushed and tied up. Mercifully, the man’s children who had been fast asleep in their own room were not awoken by the commotion or tied up as part of the robbery.
Another two suspects entered the room; one was armed with a hammer and another with a second firearm.
The three armed men then proceeded to cover the man and his wife with blankets as they lay on the floor.
They demanded money, but upon not receiving it decided to ransack the house for any valuables instead.
The man and his wife lay on the floor, covered in blankets, for what felt like an eternity.
After a while the man and his wife heard movement in the garage, and then the sound of a car starting and pulling away.
At this point, the man’s brother stormed into the bedroom – having miraculously managed to untie himself – and assisted the man and his wife in escaping from their own bonds.
Unfortunately, by the time that all three adults were untied, the suspects had managed to flee the scene.
The suspects managed to get away with two cars, six cellphones, two laptops and two televisions.
The estimated value of all of the stolen items is approximately R1 000 000.
A case of robbery was opened with Witbank SAPS, but no arrests had been affected at the time of publication.
