Durban - THREE jewellery heists have rocked KwaZulu-Natal in a just over two weeks.
The latest was on Monday morning when a number of armed robbers smashed their way through a jewellery store in Ballito Junction and fled in two vehicles with an undisclosed amount of jewellery.
Another store was robbed on January 21 at Woodburn Square in Pietermaritzburg, and another was robbed at Gateway Mall on January 15.
The three heists took place before 10am, several suspects were involved, and they fled in a vehicle or two. Shots were fired in two of the incidents, but no injuries were reported.
KZN Business Against Crime South Africa chairperson Naeem Rahiman described the latest robbery as brazen.
Rahiman said: “The robbers were heavily armed and there could not be any retaliation from the police or security personnel in order to save lives, there cannot be a shootout in the mall.”
“The robberies happen just when stores are opening up, so immediately there is the element of surprise. They are hitting too early in the morning.”
Institute for Security Studies senior researcher Dr Johan Burger said jewellery heists were nothing new and they happened regularly, with Gauteng and KZN leading in numbers.
Burger said each group of criminals had its own modus operandi and were usually well armed.
“When they decide on a target, they look at the security, location, how it’s protected, are they armed, how are they armed, the location of the police station – all depends on the nature of the target. That impacts on how they go to the target,” said Burger.
He said usually a new group starts operating in a particular area, therefore, there will be an increase in the crime.
He also said when an area was targeted, there was a police and security presence, and the gang would move to another area.
“There needed to be a sharing of information across the country and the province. Getting as much information to identify and arrest these guys,” said Burger.
He felt police need to do proper investigations and crime intelligence needs to find out who the criminals are, the leaders and members. However, it was not easy to identify the criminals.
He also said store owners, security and police needed to come together and discuss what needed to be done to prevent attacks.
The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa’s (CGCSA) head of the Crime Risk Initiative Abraham Nelson said they were aware of robberies that were specifically targeting jewellery stores in malls. The CGCSA facilitated collaboration between the police and other relevant stakeholders to address the issue.
“The CGCSA has and continues to advise jewellery stores to take the necessary security measures to protect their products and stores. They are also encouraged to work with security experts to assess their security measures and take necessary risk mitigation where necessary,” said Nelson.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Jay Naicker told media the provincial head of detectives would be putting together a team to look at recent jewellery heists and previous cases from last year to see if they could be linked to one specific gang or random incidents and try to identify and arrest the perpetrators.
Daily News