Durban - A contingent of cash-in -vehicles snaked their way through the Durban city centre on Tuesday to highlight the violent attacks on them in recent months.
It is part of a national protest organised by the Motor Transport Workers Union (MTWU) – an affiliate of the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) in the cash-in-transit industry is to demand an end of the scourge of cash-in-transit attacks.
According to Fedusa, the heists especially Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu Natal has reached crisis levels in recent months; hitting the 159 in the first six months this year compared to 147 for entire year in 2017.
In Durban, about fifty guards wearing black marched down Dr AB Xuma Street followed by a row of G4S vehicles.
They headed to the provincial police headquarters in the city centre to hand over a memorandum of demands.
A contingent of cash-in -vehicles snaked their way through the Durban city centre on Tuesday to highlight the violent attacks on them in recent months. Picture: Zainul Dawood.
The protests come as parliament is expected to bring all role-players in the cash-in-transit industry together on Wednesday to examine measures to deal with heists that appear to be spiralling out of control.
Read: Parliament to host cash-in-transit heist hearings
Police portfolio committee chairperson Francois Beukman said the aim of the public hearing was to bring all roleplayers in the cash-in-transit industry, especially in the security and law enforcement environment, under one roof and ascertain whether sufficient short-term and long-term measures were in place to deal with the crime.
“Cash-in-transit heists directly affect the safety of security officers, the SAPS and members of the public and the general perception of safety in the Republic and the portfolio committee needs assurances of the role players that the necessary proactive steps are in place to deal with the current challenges,” Beukman said.
There has been a resurgence of cash-in-transit heists with more than 180 reported country-wide since the beginning of 2018.