Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane has urged law enforcement agencies to prioritise cash-in-transit heists in the province.
Nkosi-Malobane met with various law enforcement agencies in the province on Monday to discuss a strategy aimed at preventing further cash-in-transit robberies, following a spike in heists.
"To date, 96 cash-in-transit cases have been reported, while 44 armoured vehicles were attacked."
"Very few suspects have been arrested. There are only 11 cases where arrests were made, while 85 suspects are still at large. The actual number of suspects arrested to date amounts to 26 in total," said Nkosi-Malobane.
She also said that a large number of firearms had been recovered.
"A total of 16 vehicles were recovered from some of the suspects [as well as] two police radios and two military bullet-proof vests. Warrants of arrest to be executed amount to two and a total cash of R95 million has been recovered from the scene and suspects."
Nkosi-Malobane said: "Criminals are proving to be sophisticated lately, therefore a collective approach to deal with cash-in-transit heists is critical. It is important that we commit all our resources and engage all the law enforcement agencies in the province to deal with this challenge. We cannot allow these criminals to walk our streets and instil fear amongst ordinary citizens."
The MEC said she had instructed the Crime Intelligence team to ensure that all suspects linked to cash-in-transit heists were arrested and that the maximum sentences were imposed on them.
"There is also an urgent need to collaborate with private security in the fight against the syndicates who continue to supply explosives commonly used to bomb cash-in-transit vehicles. I call upon members of the community who might have information on some of these suspects to report them to the authorities," she said.