Gauteng has recorded an increase in car and truck hijackings and cash-in-transit heists.

Revealing the crime statistics for the second quarter of 2020/2021 on Tuesday afternoon, acting police commissioner Maj-Gen Patricia Rampota said car hijackings had increased by 5% while truck hijackings increased by 52.1%.

Cash-in-transit heists increased significantly by 107.7%.

House robberies increased by 2%, while business robberies decreased by 13.3%.

Rampota said the province only recorded one bank robbery.

The statistics cover the period from July 1 to September 30.

In terms of hijackings, the most common weapons used by criminals are firearms.​

During the release of crime statistics last week Friday, police minister Bheki Cele said police in the past week had made a major breakthrough in the arrests of those committing truck hijackings.

Cele said that the syndicates had gone hi-tech to commit these crimes.  

“A few days ago we had a serious breakthrough in truck hijackings. We have arrested top guys with top technology they are using to hijack trucks. They have their own [truck] horses. When they hijack the trucks, they take off the horses and they put their horses on the trailers.” 

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