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Johannesburg – There has been a decline in crimes against business for the second quarter of the year, reported Bryte Crime Tracker.
According to business risk specialist Bryte Insurance, the tracker measures the annual change on a quarterly basis, of crime-related claims against South African businesses. These include hijacking, robbery, theft and malicious damage.
“The cost of crime in South Africa is very difficult to determine, however, there is no doubt the losses are in excess of hundreds of billions of rands,” said Cloud Saungweme, chief claims officer at Bryte Insurance.
“The wide-reaching impact is felt across consumers, businesses and the economy, impacting the country’s global competitiveness.”
Based on Bryte Insurance’s claims data, crimes have contracted 7.7% year-on-year for the second quarter of 2017, compared to the 2.7% contraction reported in the same period last year.
“The decrease in crimes against business is a positive indicator that preventative measures are being increasingly adopted by businesses,” the report read.
Theft decrease
Theft-related crimes continue to dominate, although these have contracted 7.1% in the second quarter compared to the 1.3% contraction reported in the same period last year. This reflects a decrease in incidents of theft.
Contact crimes, such as robberies and hijackings, contracted 1.7%. This is lower than the 18.1% contraction reported in the second quarter of 2016.
“While this marks an increase from the same period last year, a continued decline is however reflected in the incidents of contact crimes over the past two quarters,” the report read.
Malicious damage rises
Malicious damage to fixed and movable assets increased 20.7%, compared to 5.7% recorded in the same period last year. Damage due to protest action remains a concern, according to the report.
Saungweme called for businesses to work together with communities and government to reduce instances of crime.
Earlier this week Police Minister Fikile Mbalula released crime statistics for the period between April 2016 and March 2017. According to the date more than 20 000 armed robberies had been recorded against businesses. This is 57 per day.
Most of the robberies (95%) are for cash, while cash-in-transit heists increased by 11% over the period.
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