Cash-in-transit heists will lead to cash losses of R470m this year if the current trend continues, the Portfolio Committee on Police heard on Wednesday.
The meeting discussed a variety of stakeholders who were concerned with cash-in-transit heists, one of them also included South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric).
Sabric presented to the committee that forty-nine vehicles have been lost so far this year, costing R64m to the industry.
Sabric’s said from their statistics, injuries suffered by cash-in-transit guards increased by 82% this year with 62 guards injured. Civilian casualties also increased by 200%, two civilians have died this year, and criminals fatalities rose by 300%. Their figure’s also shown that five guards have been killed, while eight perpetrators were killed and three injured.
Police Minister Bheki Cele said cash-in-transit heists had tough words describing the heists he said they were act of terrorism. He also said he refused to “co-govern with criminals”.
Cele was honest about the police’s shortfalls but insisted that there is a turning point, the police minister put it, it’s like “fixing a flying Boeing”.
Cele said of member’s of police service, “There are some of us who are really corrupt,”
Cele added that the police unit handling this type of crime had been in turmoil during the reign of Richard Mdluli, “We all know what happened to Crime Intelligence,”
“We all know what happened to the Hawks,” Cele said.
Photo Credit- TimesLIVE
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