The South African Police Service in the Western Cape has moved to reassure the public after a reported spate of robberies at malls in and around Cape Town on Wednesday.
“We are hitting back hard at the unfortunate incidents of crime perpetrated during the past 24 hours which made headlines in the news‚” said spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut on Thursday morning.
“The Western Cape police are deployed in numbers at shopping malls and areas frequented by large groups of people to ensure their safety during the festive season.”
Traut said the police were “pleased to announce that headway is being made in our investigation into the cash in transit robbery which occurred at a shopping mall in Goodwood”.
“We have identified one of the robbers and are hot on his heels‚” he said.
Traut‚ however‚ took issue with the “news reporting and classification” of Wednesday and said police “deem it appropriate to place on record that not all incidents were so-called mall robberies”.
His listed the four incidents:
- There was a cash-in-transit robbery at a shopping mall in Goodwood.
- There was a second one was directed at a retail store in a mall in Athlone.
- There was business robbery at a bakery in Paarden Island‚ “which did not take place in a mall”.
- The incident at jewellery store in Kenilworth on Tuesday evening “is classified as a burglary not a robbery”.
“Criminals who were under the impression that this festive season is a good time to enrich themselves with other people’s cash without any interference from the long arm of the law must reconsider their thoughts‚ because we are operationally ready to deal with any occurrence whatsoever.” - TMG Digital
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