Cape Town – Nyanga police continue to make inroads in rooting out the hijacking of e-hailing drivers in Nyanga and surroundings.
This as five were arrested on Monday after they targeted an e-hailing driver in Browns Farm.
Last week, 14 suspects, including six teenagers accused of the same crime, were arrested in Browns Farm.
Police spokesperson Andre Traut said the suspects ordered an e-hailing service and robbed the driver of his vehicle and two cellphones.
“The victim managed to jump out of the vehicle and flee after he was threatened with a knife. He flagged a police patrol down and accompanied the members in search of the suspects. This search led to the arrest of a 19-year-old suspect who was pointed out by the victim.
“He was arrested and found in possession of the two cellphones robbed from the victim. Further investigation resulted in the arrest of four suspects aged between 16 and 18 this morning in Nyanga,” said Traut.
Traut said the five suspects are expected to appear in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court once they have been charged. The hijacked vehicle has since been recovered.
National e-hailing spokesperson Vhatuka Mbelengwa said e-hailing hijackings and robberies were on the rise in all areas, not only townships.
“The assumption that it's primarily in townships is because the recovery of vehicles or last tracker signal comes from a township, but the initial request by criminals will be from office parks, malls, churches, typically unsuspecting areas.
“Most police stations place these cases aside as there are too many to investigate with almost no leads and too many groups doing the same style of robberies,” he said.
Mbelengwa said easy access to the e-hailing platforms without vetting contributed to these rampant hijackings.
“If e-hailing companies had to force riders to provide positive identification in order to hail a ride they would have to be compliant with the Protection of Personal Information Act which has financial implications for them, so they just don't do it giving criminals unlimited access to the platform. After each robbery, the criminals use a new SIM card,” he said.
Nyanga Community Policing Forum chairperson Martin Makhasi welcomed the arrests and said it was concerning the perpetrators of these crimes were learners.
Makhasi said sometimes when there were arrests, drivers would abandon the cases when their vehicles were recovered.
Cape Argus