The Motor Transport Workers’ Union (MTWU) wants more to be done to protect cash-in-transit workers.
The union hailed the police’s new crime-fighting strategy but said its members need better resources.
The police ministry announced on Monday that it will deploy more officers in the field, to combat the high murder rate and rising number of cash-in-transit heists.
“We want the government to regulate this industry, especially when it comes to the issue of the vehicles that are transporting cash. It seems as if they have lost that quality. Because if you can see, it looks like it’s so easy for these cars to be bombed,” said the union’s Hlasinyane Motaung.
The ramification of armed robberies is currently costing the banking and cash-in-transit industries vast amounts of money‚ not only in cash being stolen‚ but also due to money being spent on fighting this crime. The expenditure of these industries on target hardening and surveillance measures is radically increasing as perpetrators become more professional and sophisticated‚” Thobane found.
The 2014 study is titled “The criminal career of armed robbers with specific reference to cash-in-transit robberies”.
On Wednesday the Seshego Regional Court in Limpopo jailed mine workers for dealing in explosives.
Captain Matimba Maluleke from the Hawks told TimesLIVE that they could not rule out a possibility of there being a link between the dealers and the rise in cash-in-transit heists since the crime was often operated by syndicates.
“The sentencing comes at the time when the province and the country are experiencing an upsurge in cash-in-transit heists and commercial explosives are reportedly being used in a commission of these serious crimes.”
Source:eNCA