The vehicle tracking company released its Vehicle Crime Index statistics for January to June 2024, showing that at a national level, hijackings still dominate, comprising 54% of all vehicle crime incidents versus theft at 46%. However, this becomes even more pronounced in the Eastern and Western Cape, and particularly with business-owned vehicles.

The Tracker Vehicle Crime Index aggregates information from Tracker’s more than 1.1 million subscriptions. The data indicates that in the Eastern Cape a personal vehicle is four times likelier to be hijacked than stolen. Moreover, it is nine times likelier for a business-owned vehicle to be hijacked rather than stolen in the province. Plus, the highest propensity toward business vehicle crime occurs in the Eastern Cape, with 43% over-representation relative to Tracker’s business-owned vehicle subscriber base.

The Western Cape follows a similar trend, with a skew towards hijacking rather than theft. A personal vehicle is almost twice as likely to be hijacked than stolen. A personally owned vehicle in the Western Cape also has a higher propensity to vehicle crime at 22% over-representation relative to Tracker’s subscriber base.

While hijacking also dominates total business vehicle crime nationally at 65%, bucking the trend, vehicle crime for personal vehicles leans towards theft at 52% nationally. Business-owned vehicles are also 45% more likely to experience vehicle crime compared to personal vehicles.

Business-owned vehicles range from cargo trucks with trailers to courier vehicles delivering items ordered online. Crime aimed at these vehicles proves highly lucrative, with the objective mainly to acquire the goods being transported.

Gauteng is still the province that experiences the highest volume of vehicle crime with 58% of the total vehicle crime incidents. While 51% of all nationwide hijackings occur in Gauteng due to vehicle volumes, Gauteng experiences more theft at 53% versus hijacking at 47%.

Across the country, a higher proportion of vehicles are reported hijacked on Fridays, and between the hours of 4pm and 8pm. Theft is mainly reported on Saturdays, and between the hours of 11am and 3pm.

Tracker’s efforts to combat vehicle crime has resulted in 127 884 vehicle recoveries, 20 958 arrests and 1 119 firearms recovered to date, the company said.

“Crime tends to shift across provinces over time, and there are different levels of crime based on the sophistication of the crime syndicates in the province. At the moment, theft in Gauteng is greater than hijacking most likely due to syndicates using keyless entry relay attacks to steal vehicles. More concerning is that crime along the N2 corridor towards Gqeberha has significantly increased. Given the economic situation in the Eastern Cape, a province with significant unemployment, this is most likely opportunistic crime. In other words, the hijacking and looting of bounty on the back of trucks or in delivery vehicles, with a view to converting this into quick, easy, untraceable cash,” said Duma Ngcobo, Chief Operating Officer at Tracker.

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Speaking in Pretoria on Sunday on the Police Take Down Successes of Police Counter Operations, Police Minister Bheki Cele said police on the ground were pushing back on crime through high-density operations in identified high-crime areas across the country through Operation Shanela.

“Over 500000 suspected criminals have been removed from society and brought before the courts to answer for their alleged crimes.”

“Officers in all nine provinces, led by the respective provincial commissioners, have conducted almost 69468 high-density crime prevention and combating operations in the last 11 months,” he said.

The countrywide high-density operations resulted in the arrest of 8563 suspected rapists and 6045 murder suspects.

“A total of 4410 suspects have been arrested for attempted murder. Police officers have arrested 63573 assault GBH [grievous bodily harm] suspects and 37333 suspects accused of common assault.”

“A total of 41191 suspects have been arrested for the Contravention of the Immigration Act and were found to be in the country illegally, while 16073 drunk drivers were taken off our roads and arrested through various roadblocks and stop-and-searches during simultaneous countrywide operation,” said Cele.

He said 2819 illegal miners involved in illicit mining were arrested.

“Under operation ‘Vala umgodi’, a multidisciplinary operation involving various government departments such as the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, 3298 illegal miners were arrested.”

Cele said 1028 hijacking suspects were arrested over the past 11 months and 3670 suspects were nabbed and faced business burglary charges, while a further 10743 suspects were arrested for breaking and entering into houses.  

“Working jointly with local, provincial and national traffic police and other sister departments, the focus of Operation Shanela remains the prevention of crime,” added Cele.

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