REGIONAL CRIME TRENDS


Additionally, food and beverage and medical supplies saw an elevated risk throughout the start of 2020.”


What has not changed, it adds, is the ingenuity of the perpetrator, the underpinning motivations, and the lengths that they are prepared to go to avoid apprehension. In order to enter a depot or warehouse, these thieves must conduct a great degree of planning and intelligence gathering. Carrying out a successful theft of cargo from a facility generally requires intricate details of security provisions, patrols, entry and exit points, and the operations on-site. Thieves may take advantage of any vulnerabilities in order to


13


complete a theft, including corruption within the supply chain.


TT Club and BSI state: “South Africa ranks among the top countries in the world and first on the African continent for BSI’s forecasted losses due to cargo theft, underscoring the significant economic impact of the serious cargo theft problem in the nation. Hijackings of loaded trucks, which often involve violence against the driver or security escort, are the main form of cargo theft in South Africa, although robbery of air and rail freight and thefts from warehouses are also common. Well-organized gangs both conduct hijackings of stopped vehicles and engage in sophisticated schemes whereby criminals disguised as police officers force trucks to stop in unsecured parking lots and closed warehouse facilities.”


Historically, they say, there is an inverse relationship between crime and economic growth in South Africa. This year, COVID-19 impacts involving lockdowns and a decline in the economy added an additional layer to that relationship. The decline in the economy, along with the changes brought about by a restrictive lockdown in response to COVID-19 earlier this year, left the freight sector in a vulnerable situation.


In-Transit


Location of Cargo theft In-Transit


73%


2019 H1


13% Theft of Vehicle Theft from Vehicle Theft of Container/Trailer


2020 H1


14%


7% 7% 13% 2% Other


7% 7% Theft of Vehicle Theft from Vehicle Theft of Container/Trailer Facility Pipeline 7% 10% 12% Facility Theft from Facility 57% Modality of Cargo Theft Truck 93%


2019 H1


2020 H1


Truck 78%


Between, H1 2019 and H1 2020, the report claims there was a drop in the number of thefts from in-transit trucks, while cargo thefts from facilities, parking locations, delivery sites, and warehouses increased. The shift in theft location from in-transit to facilities highlights the importance of investing in mitigation strategies to reduce the occurrence and negative impacts of these thefts, including threats to worker safety, loss of valuable goods, and insecurity of facilities. Geographically, in H1 2020, the areas of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape saw regular occurrences of cargo theft, diversifying the locations of thefts in South Africa, which primarily occur in Gauteng province, which includes the country’s largest commercial and population centre, Johannesburg.


CONTINUED ON PAGE 14


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