Carlo Petersen
POLICE are hot on the trail of four alleged mall robbers after analysing evidence from CCTV footage of recent incidents.
Images of suspects captured from surveillance footage were released yesterday after there had been robberies at malls in Somerset West and Brackenfell.
On Sunday, September 21, seven men entered a jewellery store at Somerset Mall and stole goods before speeding off in a white Toyota RunX. Surveillance cameras captured two suspects who have not yet been identified, according to police spokesman Andre Traut.
In another incident on Thursday, May 15, three men held up and robbed a MTN cellphone shop at Fairbridge Mall in Brackenfell.
The shop assistant and a customer were tied up, forced to lie on the floor before the suspects stole a number of cellphones and drove away in a gold Opel Astra.
Images of two men allegedly involved in the incident have been released. The men are identified as Zandisile Nelani and Siyabonga Gwangqa.
“The two have been released on bail following their arrest for an armed robbery perpetrated at a cellular shop in Woodstock during March and failed to return to court,” Traut said.
He added: “We are still busy analysing the CCTV footage of other incidents and hopefully we will be able to release more images of suspects soon.”
Traut said after meeting mall owners, it became evident that lots can be done to improve security.
“We are assisting the malls with regard to deployments and other issues such as positioning of CCTV cameras based on our crime pattern analysis to enhance security measures. Additional deployments and intelligence- driven operations are also key in our approach to curb the tendency in the Western Cape,” he said.
Paarl Mall became the latest shopping centre to be targeted by criminals who broke in to three stores on Sunday night.
The break-in was the 16th criminal incident at malls in the Western Cape this year.
Recently, a robber, who police say was disguised as a woman, shot and killed a security guard at the Waterstone Village Centre in Somerset West.
In another armed robbery, police arrested three men after they robbed a cigarette company in Rondebosch yesterday.
The armed suspects, aged between 21 and 27, robbed a cigarette company in Foundry Road just after 9am. Staff were held at gunpoint while the contents of a delivery truck were stolen. Traut says the stolen goods and the firearms have been recovered.
Meanwhile an anti-crime forum has been set up to stem the tide of mall robberies sweeping through Gauteng. The South African Council of Shopping Centres, the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, Business Against Crime South Africa, the South African Police Service, retailers and shopping centre owners/managers formed the anti-crime collaborative forum to curb shopping centre robberies in that province.
“The aim of the forum would be to share all information on shopping centre-related crime; no matter how big or small, and to use this as an input to improving prevention and combating responses to the ongoing wave of crimes against the industry,” said Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Lesetja Mothiba.