By Trudie Grovè-Morgan: MPL – DA Spokesperson on Community Safety and Security
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is shocked to learn that the small town of Delmas in Mpumalanga has been identified as the commercial truck hijacking Capital of South Africa.
According to crime statistics reports released this week by the national Police Ministry, out of 30 South African Police precincts that recorded high cases of commercial truck hijacking, Delmas is at number 1 with 33 truck hijacking cases recorded within the 2018/2019 financial year. At-least 23 trucks were hijacked in the area in the 2017/2018 financial year.
After Delmas; Heidelberg Police Precinct in Gauteng Province has recorded 31 cases of truck hijacking in the 2018/2019 financial year – down from the 43 cases recorded in the 2017/2018 financial year.
Overall, 116 trucks were hijacked across the whole province of Mpumalanga in the 2018/2019 financial year. At-least this is a slight decrease from the 121 trucks hijacked in the province in 2017/2018 financial year.
According to the South African Insurance Crime Bureau, fleet truck vehicles were particularly attractive to Truck hijacking syndicates because of their valuable cargo; especially with products like tobacco currently in high demand. They said Truck hijacking currently cost South Africa over R3 billion per annum.
What concerns the DA the most is that, the cases of truck hijacking in Mpumalanga could add to the already high percentage of unemployment rate in the province because this crime does not only affect the trucking companies, but also the businesses that are meant to receive the goods. If this continues, these businesses may-be forced to lay-off workers.
This will have a negative impact on the already strained labour force with its 32.1 unemployment rate currently recorded in Mpumalanga province.
We’re also concerned about the increasing number of car-jackings across the province. According to these recent Crime Stats, 896 cars were hijacked in Mpumalanga in the 2017/2018 financial year. This figure increased to 917 cases recorded in the 2018/2019 financial year.
To deal with hijacking and all crimes in general, the ANC government must have its priorities straight. We cannot have a situation where government spends millions of rands protecting one VIP and only R1 500 per South African resident.
The DA calls on Community Safety and Security MEC, Gabisile Tshabalala and the Provincial Government to have their priorities straight – by redirecting money from VIP protection and allocate more of it to our police officers so that they can be fully equipped in combating crimes such as hijacking, rape, robberies, theft, murder, etc.
With political will, the battle against crime is a winnable.