Durban - Police raided a suspected chop shop near KwaMakhutha south of Durban on Monday night and seized three vehicles.
They went to a house at Illovu, KwaMakhutha, following up on information about stolen vehicles.
Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Thulani Zwane said the raid was a crime intelligence driven operation conducted by National Intervention Unit members.
“On their arrival, they saw three vehicles parked in the premises. The owner of the house fled when noticing the arrival of the police. Three vehicles were searched and (their details) circulated.”
Zwane said all three vehicles came up as stolen around the greater Durban areas.
“One was stolen at Isipingo, the second at Amanzimtoti and the last stolen at Pinetown.”
He said a number of logbooks, for various vehicles, were also found in the house, as well as identity books.
Briefing Parliament’s portfolio committee on police yesterday, Major General Norman Sekhukhune, head of police crime research and statistics, indicated that three crimes, carjackings, home robberies and business robberies - more commonly known as “trio crimes” - had seen bigger rises in the 2016/17 financial year than previous years.
Carjackings were up 14.5 percent nationally, while home robberies were up 7.3 percent (compared to an increase of 2.7 percent in 2015/16) and business robberies were up 5 percent.
Gauteng saw a 16.9 percent increase in carjackings, with 8 610 cases reported, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 3 029 cases (up 21.5 %), and the Western Cape with 2 201 (up 8.3%). - Additional reporting by ANA