We can’t go on like this, says local jeweller
He did not think anyone would dare, yet they did… This was the sentiment of Bechara Najjoum, the owner of Faux Follie jewellery shop in Riverside Mall, following the armed robbery that took place there on April 29.
Najjoum (also known as Danny to most) remembers setting a customer’s watch to 12:50 and approximately 10 minutes later, armed men entered his shop. At that time, it was Najjoum, one employee and one customer in Faux Follie.
He said no violence had been used against them, but they were instructed to lie on the floor and informed they would be killed if they did anything.
Najjoum said the robbers proceeded to take more than 200 watches, about 70 of which were worth R7 000 and upwards. They also took all the jewellery in the men’s section. Even Najjoum’s chain and cross hanging around his neck had not escaped the thieves.
He has been in the Lowveld for 21 years now and said about the first 15 of those had been a pleasure. He owns another one of these shops in i’langa Mall, and suffered the same fate there too.
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It is not the five minutes of the robbery, it is the aftermath, he said. He lost four to five business days because of this, not to mention the feeling of being violated in your own space.
“When this happens, the city loses, we lose; we cannot carry on like this.”
This begs the question of what can be done to curb this problem. Najjoum, for one, is convinced armed guards are a valid solution.
A solution is yet to be conceived, but the reaction measures are there. Both Riverside Mall and i’langa Mall’s management said they have multiple security systems in place.
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“Our customers’ safety and security are a key priority for us and we constantly review and revise our security methods within the mall,” said the marketing manager for Riverside Mall, Nomfundo Nhlapo.
The same goes for i’langa. Armed guards are, however, not an option that either of the centres is willing to consider.
“Apart from two or three superregional malls in South Africa, armed guards are not commonly used in our country’s malls,” said Nhlapo.
The general manager for i’langa Mall, Fred Smith, said this would jeopardise customers’ safety.
“When armed robbers enter the mall, the idea is to get them out of the centre as soon as possible.”
If a gun fight or chase ensues, it is safer if it happens outside where customers are no longer in the line of fire. Outside the centre, the onus then falls on the SAPS and armed response units. They are armed and trained to handle situations like that.
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“Crime prevention remains the responsibility of the SAPS and each member of the public. i’langa Mall has a very good relationship with the SAPS and assist with measures where possible.”
He highlighted the role of security guards in this situation. Their main priority is to ensure shoppers’ safety, and that means getting them out of harm’s way by, for example, ushering them into a nearby shop until the element of danger is no longer present.
The guard’s job is not to stop the robbers in their tracks.
Smith mentioned an excellent network between shopping centres in the city when something like this happens.
“We will immediately let other centres know when something occurs so they can be on the lookout for criminals.” He said it has happened in the past where a person shoplifted at one centre and was then caught at another, all thanks to this system of information sharing.
Local security companies Hi-Tech and J&M Security also weighed in on the subject and echoed both malls’ management’s sentiments.
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Callum mac Pherson of Hi-Tech said there is no limit to improvements when it comes to security measures.
“Utilising dedicated armed response units has shown a positive effect. There is, however, a difference between armed reaction and armed guarding.
“Having static armed members could make them a primary target for criminals as they are limited in movement and confined between moving members of the public that could very well be armed criminals.”
J&M’s Shaun Terblanche continued in the same vein and said, in his opinion, to deploy armed guards in a shopping centre, during business hours, is not the answer at all.
“The suspects will know the guards are armed and will not hesitate to shoot. Bystanders could be hurt in the process.”
He mentioned the various ways in which malls can counteract criminal efforts, ranging from CCTV to facial recognition to boom gates with spikes and more.
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According to Terblanche and mac Pherson, being cooperative during an armed robbery is the best way to ensure your safety. It is important to remain calm. As you are not the objective in the robbery, it is likely you will not be intentionally harmed.
Various elements come into play when criminal activity shows its face, the systems and relationships being of utmost importance.
“If you see something, report it,” Smith requested. With the public’s help, the systems these centres have in place can be optimised even further.
