Cape Town – The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) remains concerned about the high number of violent cash-in-transit robberies that have taken place in the past year.
The organisation was reacting to the release of the 2016/17 crime statistics on Tuesday. The number of cash-in-transit robberies increased by 11% to a total of 152.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, presenting the statistics to Parliament's oversight committee on police, said that SABRIC and the banking sector needed to invest more in safeguards against these types of attacks.
He also said banks had stopped using the dye as a measure to prevent robberies.
SABRIC, banks and the country's cash-in-transit (CIT) industry will continue to work closely with the police and the Hawks to oper to curb these type of incidents, the organisation said in a statement.
It acknowledged that crime fighting was a collective responsibility,
“We are also hoping that significant arrests will be made in the near future to eradicate these attacks”, said SABRIC CEO Kalyani Pillay in a statement.
Safety
According to SABRIC, cash-in-transit companies were doing everything possible to mitigate risk, which included investing significantly in the safety of their vehicles.
Despite implementing safety measures, cash-in-transit armoured vehicles are still regularly violently attacked by large groups of between 15 and 20 criminals, often heavily armed with automatic rifles.
"They use commercial explosives to access the secure vaults on these armoured vehicles, rendering them a write off due to the damage caused by the explosives. The majority of these attacks are perpetrated in rural areas in and around the provinces around Gauteng," the group said.
"The CIT companies also make use of protection devices to secure the cash they carry between the armoured vehicle and their respective service points."
"Unfortunately, armed criminals brazenly walk up to the guards carrying these devices and either shoot or threaten them, forcing them to hand them over", SABRIC's statement read.
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