Retail cash crime remains high on the criminal agenda with more than 20 000 armed robberies reported in the past year.
This is according to Cash Connect, South Africa’s leading provider of automated cash management and payment solutions for the retail sector.
Cash Connect hosted a panel of experts including Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, acting divisional commissioner for visible policing, Lieutenant-General Sharon Jephta, Abraham Nelson from the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, the anti-crime activist, Yusuf Abramjee and Reggie Sibiya of the Fuel Retailer Association to discuss the subject.
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According to the experts, there are more than 20 000 armed robberies daily; the country’s economy faces violent attacks.
Experts claim that 55 brazen armed robbery attacks, anything from 10 to 15 armed men with automatic weapons happen every day – all in pursuit of large volumes of cash.
Although showing a marginal downward trend, comparing the first eight months of 2018 to the same period last year, joint CEO of Cash Connect, Richard Phillips said there has been a slight increase in armed robberies.
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Phillips cited seven per cent increase in armed robberies against the retail sector saying it’s specifically and mostly for cash.
He said 78 per cent of the victims are SMMEs, large retailers and fuel stations and the target is almost always cash.
“In the past year, attacks against our customers were contained below two per cent of our national base and 94 per cent of bombing attacks were successfully defended.
“The stats released in September by Police Minister Bheki Cele showed clear similarities between cash-in-transit robberies and retail cash crime, supporting the cash industry’s belief that the syndicates move from one target to the other – they are after cash,” said Phillips
“These are the same bandits, each with defined roles – from controlling customers and staff, to efficiently getting to the back of the store, finding the cash and getting out in less than three minutes.”
While there has been progress in bringing down cash robberies, with the festive season just around the corner, Phillips said police are bracing themselves as more and more cash goes into circulation.
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Sibiya said he didn’t think there was a service station in the country that hadn’t been hit.
“They go for the ATM, they go for the shop, and they go for the tills while people are waiting to fill up with petrol, sometimes they even hijack customers.”
Nelson, who once worked for SA’s police crime intelligence and now head of the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa’s Crime Risk Initiative, calls it a ‘total onslaught’.
Nkosi-Malobane admits that Gauteng’s crime rate keeps her awake at night and said employees are akin to intelligence agents.
“Your own staff should be your eyes and ears; you need to profile them and do proper vetting and most importantly, you need to invest in intelligence. Sixty per cent of criminals come from within,” she said.
She urges experts to work together to prevent crime before it happens – there is no need to always be doing reactive policing.
Jephta says where there is an investment by retailers in measures to deter criminals, there’s usually a reduction in crime.
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