CAPE TOWN, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A spate of armed robberies at retail premises and cash-in-transit trucks around the country have rocked South Africa, prompting Parliament on Wednesday to urge proactive action from the police.
"We need to see good detective and intelligence-driven work to apprehend the perpetrators of these crimes and work towards a situation where criminals are prevented from carrying out these crimes," said Francois Beukman, Chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police.
Beukman expressed belief that these criminal acts could be reduced if the Crime Intelligence Division of the South African Police Service (SAPS) commissioned effective, proactive network operations and projects that will intercept the plans of syndicates involved in these robberies.
His statements were made amid growing concern over the spate of cash-in-transit heists in Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape, provinces as well as armed robberies at retail premises around the country.
In a recent armed robbery in Wellington outside Cape Town, gunmen stormed a shopping mall, killing a shop owner.
In a cash-in-transit robbery in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga Province on Tuesday, about 10 men in four vehicles intercepted an armored vehicle loaded with cash and opened fire, wounding a security guard. The group escaped with an undisclosed amount of cash and firearms.
Earlier in April, a gang of armed robbers blew up an armored cash-in-transit truck in busy traffic in Johannesburg, escaping with an undisclosed amount of money.
Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police is deeply concerned that employees and clients have been injured and killed during armed robberies at retailers and during cash-in-transits, said Beukman.
The Visible Policing Division, another unit of the SAPS, is critical in the reduction of these incidents, he said.
"This division should implement proactive plans at cluster level and ensure adequate policing at retail outlets," he said.
Beukman called for better cooperation between the SAPS and business owners to mitigate any risks that could encourage these kinds of criminal activities.
South Africa is among the countries that have the highest crime rate in the world. As crimes keep rising, people have lost faith in the police with the level of satisfaction having declined from 64.2 percent in 2011 to 58.8 percent in 2015/2016, according to a recent survey by Statistics South Africa.
