You should see these shocking road crime stats
There is no denying that South Africans have many reasons to be concerned about their safety and security, and the recently released crime statistics makes this subconscious fear of every South African a reality.
The release of South Africa’s crime statistics for April 2013 to March 2014 by the National police commissioner also caused heated debate from many political and private sector spokespeople. And one of the crimes that increasd the most is hijacking incidents:
Carjacking has shown a 12.3% increase from 9 990 incidences in the previous period to 11 221 cases this year. Robbery with aggravating circumstances showed a 12.7% increase from 105 888 to 119 351.
The most worrying statistic however is the upward trend in trio crimes (hijacking, house and business robbery) that were pegged at 49 120 incidences this year, which is a 10.8% increase from the previous period’s 44 137. The incidence of trio crimes has almost doubled in the last ten years, with 25 145 cases reported in the 2004/2005 period. It equates to a staggering 134 cases of trio crimes taking place in South Africa, on a daily basis.
“The SAPS crime statistics on hijacking and trio crimes strongly correlate with our internal findings. Incidences of hijacking have risen sharply in the last year,” says Jerry Pierce, Operations Manager at Cartrack. “Some vehicles are stripped for spare parts, others are taken across border into neighbouring countries, while a further significant number of hijacked vehicles are simply relicensed with the aid of corrupt officials and put back on our roads. As long as there is a demand for vehicles on the black market and as long as corrupt officials are fuelling the illegal trade in stolen vehicles, I don’t foresee the crime of hijacking decreasing significantly in our country,” he adds.