The scourge of vehicular crime, armed hijacking, in particular, is a constant fear in the minds of South African motorists.
Crime statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) reveal that one vehicle is hijacked every 32 minutes.
Understanding the nature of crime is complex as it is not usually a random act of crime.
Hijackings are carefully planned and executed.
Hendri Appelgryn, managing director of Paratus Enterprise said hijacking is not a new or unique problem to South Africa.
“The first hijacking was recorded in 1984. Between January and August 1996, there were 8 740 hijackings in South Africa, of which 5 251 were in Gauteng,” Appelgryn shared some history.
He said hijacking is also not only a problem just associated with industrial areas like Wadeville in Germiston, but rather a problem associated with the availability of certain vehicles.
“In 90% of these cases the hijackers were armed, although only 1% of attacks involved a fatal shooting. This means that the better prepared a potential victim is, the greater probability of the person surviving the attack with limited physical injury.”
Appelgryn delved into the profiles of hijackers and said, “To date, the overwhelming proportion of all the hijackers have been men, and occasionally women. They operate in groups of three or four, sometimes more. The hijackers tend to be very young, in their teens and early twenties, although some victims report the presence of a team leader who seemed older. Women are being used to lull potential victims into a false sense of security, since most of us feel less threatened in the presence of a woman as opposed to a man.”
According to Appelgryn these people are sometimes well dressed, but not always.
They may wear a jacket or jersey under which they may conceal weapons, mostly handguns and knives, and occasionally AK47/R5 assault rifles.
“The hijackers operate from motorcars, although they have been known to attack on foot. The cars they use vary, but are normally high performance vehicles, sometimes with tinted windows. Their driving habits are immediately suspicious. Before an attack they may cruise slowly around a particular area, often for days before the attack, without any apparent sense of purpose or specific direction. They may also simply sit in the car parked off the road or in a parking garage. Immediately after an attack, their driving patterns change dramatically. They will speed off, driving perhaps nervously and recklessly, but often with an air of bravado as if enjoying or flaunting publicly their total disregard for the law and the innocent person they have just attacked. They might ignore red traffic lights, jump stop streets and weave in and out through traffic, especially on motorways. This renders them highly visible to the public and this is where private citizens can play a vital role in assisting these people’s arrests.”
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