Crime threat to KZN businesses
KZN businesses are being hit hard by criminals, according to the annual crime statistics.
|||Durban - KwaZulu-Natal businesses are being hit hard by criminals – statistics showed on Tuesday an increase in business robberies, shoplifting and truck hijackings.
However, KZN overall was still one of the three best-performing provinces in terms of improved crime statistics, and that trend did not take into account glitches that artificially inflated hijacking statistics at most KZN police stations.
Murder in KZN, however, went up 5.45%. But in terms of the murder rate KZN was the third-highest in the country, some distance behind the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.
For business robberies, however, the increase to 2 750 incidents is the highest it has been in the past 10 years.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Jean Steyn, of the criminology and forensic sciences department, said robbery at non-residential premises (predominantly businesses) had reached the highest levels in 10 years, and showed an increase of 81.17% since the period April 2005 to March 2006.
Shoplifting also increased, by 5.5% to 14 118 incidents registered in the 2014 to 2015 period.
Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Gareth Newham said the slight increase by 54 cases in non-residential robberies was a bit worrying when the statistics showed that other robberies, including house robberies and hijackings, had decreased.
“This could suggest that people have done a better job of protecting their homes and vehicles, and criminals are now moving on to other types of robberies.”
On the high spike in truck hijackings, which saw a 37% increase to 63 incidents in the province, Newham said it could be that highly organised criminals who were used to carrying out cash-in-transit robberies had shifted their focus to trucks because it was lucrative.
There were only 18 incidents of cash-in-transit robberies in KZN’s latest statistics, a decrease of 51.4%.
“The policing and security around cash-in-transit vehicles has improved, so it could be more difficult to commit these robberies. So trucks could be seen as a better option because they have a lot of goods worth millions of rands, and these goods are easier to sell.”
Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Dumile Cele said robberies at businesses had a “direct bearing on whether they could perform well, which had a knock-on effect on the economy”.
“The rise in non-residential robberies can be the result of a variety of factors, but one cannot underestimate the triple ills of poverty, inequality and unemployment. We can expect lawlessness to increase among a hungry nation.”
Enforce Security director Derek Lategan said business robberies continued to increase because of a growing demand for hi-tech equipment across South Africa’s borders.
“A syndicate would need to break into 20 homes to steal 20 computers or laptops, but in one business robbery they can fulfil that amount. Stolen items are shipped outside of our borders.”
He said the syndicates committing these robberies were highly organised and acted upon their own intelligence.
Cele said the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry had prioritised addressing “crime and grime” in Durban.
“Part of the vision for economic growth for Durban is to ensure the rejuvenation of the city and ensure growth in property values, while attracting investment into the city. This is all impossible under the current situation of high crime and grime. We are working with the municipality and law enforcement agencies to find lasting solutions.”
The Mercury