Police appear to have under-reported the number of cash-in-transit heists‚ according to an internal report by the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC).
According to the report – leaked exclusively to the publication – there were 409 cash-in-transit heists between April 2016 and March 2017.
But police stats for the same period reveal just 152 such incidents.
Using the SABRIC figures‚ cash-in-transit heists surged from 254 in the 2015/16 year.
A source within the banking security sector‚ who spoke to the publication on condition of anonymity‚ said heist perpetrators operated with impunity.
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“The problem is that these men realise that they can blow up the vans and kill guards and not get caught. And if they are arrested‚ the chance of being convicted is so low‚” he said.
The source cited one incident where a cash-in-transit robber was arrested for a fifth time while he was out on bail for four previous robberies.
“The numbers are up like crazy. Sometimes we will have two or three big heists a day. The police say a 10.9 percentage point rise but ... the rise is closer to 30%‚” he said.
These high-stakes thefts often employ explosives and high-calibre weaponry. As a result‚ SABRIC found that the true cost of heists can be measured in blood.
According to the restricted SABRIC report‚ distributed in August‚ 16 people had been killed this year alone. Among them are seven security guards‚ two policemen‚ a bystander and six gunmen.
Cash losses have amounted to nearly half a billion rand since 2014.
So far this year‚ gangs of well-trained gunmen have made off with over R106 million. The cash was stolen in 198 separate heists‚ at a staggering rate of almost 20 per month.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula released crime statistics on Tuesday and blamed banking institutions for the spike in numbers.
“We have cash-in-transit crimes going up – on the other hand the financial institutions are not investing properly in the high assets in transit. The armoured vans we see on our roads do not compare with serious armed vehicles we see in Europe‚” he said.
“Banks must invest more in proper equipment and inform SAPS of high value cargo well in time for planning. Internal hiring in these companies must accompany deeper security vetting and continual lie-detector tests and other methods.
“Banks must return the dye that assisted in slowing down the cash-in-transit crimes. Rendering the money useless is important. I am told that banks stopped using the orange dye because of costs. This is not acceptable.”