No place to hide as car thugs run riot

South Africa is at the heart of a multibillion-rand regional car-theft racket reaching as far as Tanzania

Reiger Park has had 28 hijackings since January. That is four a month - already half of what was recorded by the police for the entire 2012-13 year in this small East Rand township.

The police do not reveal statistics except for the official annual figures released in September, but following the death of four-year-old Taegrin Morris on Saturday last week, the spotlight has been cast on a community under siege.

Be it Reiger Park or Inanda in Sandton, where businessman Dean Jones was murdered after a botched hijacking outside his home earlier this month, some experts agree that hijackings are on the rise in the greater Johannesburg metropolitan area.

Following the two hijackings involving Taegrin and six-year-old Mongezi Phike, Lizette Lancaster, manager of the crime information and analysis hub at the Institute for Security Studies, said: "It is ironic that the police station precincts in which these incidents took place have some of the lowest record of hijackings in Gauteng."

Her statement is based on last year's statistics.

An analysis of them by the institute found that nearly 48% of hijackings in Gauteng took place in the greater Johannesburg metro.

The remaining 52% of incidents were spread across the province. The police precincts bearing the brunt included Thembisa with 143, Booysens with 125, Springs with 104 and the Moroka precinct in Soweto at 102.

Car-tracking company Altech Netstar said indications were that the areas that recorded high hijacking figures last year would again feature prominently in the upcoming crime statistics.

These included Alberton, Germiston, Sandton, Roodepoort, Boksburg and Benoni - which together clocked a total of 452 hijackings last year.

In September, the new police statistics will tell one story - but if personal accounts of recent horror hijackings are anything to go by, it remains to be seen whether the statistics will be a true reflection of the reality that South Africans live with.

Gareth Newham, head of crime and justice at the institute, said hijackings had been increasing since 2012.

He said it remained baffling that the police were unwilling to provide regular figures to help communities and industry to better plan to combat current crime trends.

"Why do we need to wait 16 to 18 months before we can know what is happening now, which would enable more effective crime fighting?"

He said the South African police had some of the most sophisticated crime intelligence gathering tools in the world.

"Their systems are updated every 24 hours. Surely, they must have a grip on things."

The South African Insurance Crime Bureau, which works closely with industry and the police to tackle organised crime and fraud in the industry, puts the cost of stolen vehicles at more than R8-billion last year.

The bureau's chief operating officer, Hugo van Zyl, said: "One must remember that we are the only vehicle-manufacturing country in Southern Africa."

Vehicles are hijacked here by syndicates who receive orders from neighbouring countries.

The emerging economies in neighbouring countries create a huge market for specific types of cars.

"These vehicles are, for example, destined for use by private leasing or rental agents who supply vehicles to foreign companies investing in major development projects elsewhere in Africa," said Van Zyl.

Confirmed cross-border recoveries of stolen vehicles in recent months include:

• Nearly 40 Toyotas and BMWs from Botswana;
• About 20 Toyotas from Mozambique;
• About 12 Toyota Fortuners, Hilux bakkies and Mercedes-Benz models from Zimbabwe;
• About 25 Toyotas, Isuzus and Nissans from Swaziland;
• Three Mercedes-Benzes from Zambia; and
• Several Toyota Landcruisers and Mercedes-Benz cars from Tanzania.

During the same period, the number of arrests included 20 in Botswana, 17 in Swaziland and nine in Zimbabwe.

Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal remain the two provinces with the most incidents of hijacking, but the Western Cape flagged its concerns this week about a spike in the number of incidents.

"We have seen a year-on-year increase in hijacking incidents across the Western Cape, coupled with a general increase in crime," said Rob Dale, managing director of ADT Security in the Western Cape.

Police crime statistics show there was a 30.4% increase in hijackings in the province between 2011-12 and 2012-13.

This week, Western Cape community safety MEC Dan Plato met provincial police commissioner General Arno Lamoer to discuss concerns about hijackings in the province.

"I am concerned about the possibility of increased hijackings in the Western Cape after learning about the horrific incidents that happened in Gauteng," said Plato.

This followed a spate of violent attacks on motorists in the vicinity of the Cape Town Airport this month.

Private investigator Danie Day, who works closely with insurance companies, said the vehicles popular with hijackers included Toyota Hilux bakkies, Jeep Wranglers, Toyota Prados, VW Golf GTIs and Polos, as well as Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, Land Rovers and the Range Rover Evoque.

They are difficult to steal while parked because robbers need the encrypted key to start the ignition.

"That is why they are targeted by hijackers," said Day.

Netstar's chief operations executive, Van Wyk, warned that the profile of hijackers was changing.

Traditionally, syndicates used young Zimbabwean or Mozambican men to drive the cars across the border.

Now they are also using trendy young couples to drive the 4x4s, which can be packed with travel goods to make it look like they are going on holiday.

bornmanj@sundaytimes.co.za