South Africa’s ‘hijacker highway’
Tracker’s vehicle crime statistics from January to June 2024 reveal that at a national level, hijackings still dominate vehicle crimes in South Africa, and the Eastern Cape and its N2 highway are of particular concern.
The Tracker Vehicle Crime Index aggregates information from Tracker’s more than 1.1 million subscriptions.
According to the data, nationally, 54% of all vehicle crime incidents versus theft are at 46%. However, this becomes even more pronounced in the Eastern and Western Cape.
The data indicates that in the Eastern Cape, a personal vehicle is four times more likely to be hijacked than stolen.
Moreover, in the province, it is nine times likelier for a business-owned vehicle to be hijacked rather than stolen.
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.
Along with the concerning vehicle crime stats for the province, Tracker COO Duma Ngcobo flagged the N2 highway to towards Gqeberha as a concern.
“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,” he said.
“However, 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,” Ngcobo added.
Looking at other provinces, the Western Cape follows a similar trend to the Eastern Cape, 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.
Gauteng is still the province that experiences the highest volume of vehicle crime, with 58% of the total vehicle crime incidents, which is significantly over-representative of Tracker’s Gauteng vehicle subscriber base.
While 51% of all nationwide hijackings occur in Gauteng due to vehicle volumes, Gauteng experiences more theft at 53% versus hijacking at 47%.
“At the moment, theft in Gauteng is greater than hijacking, most likely due to syndicates using keyless entry relay attacks to steal vehicles,” said Ngcobo.
However, that does not mean there’s no reason to stay alert.
The National Community Police Board of South Africa (NCPS) has warned that hijackers are increasingly targeting victims on off- and on-ramps of South Africa’s busiest highways, especially in Gauteng.
Tracker’s data seems to align with that of the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Presenting the latest quarterly crime statistics for the fourth quarter of 2023/24 and the first quarter of 2024/25 – January to June 2024 – the South African Police Service (SAPS) noted that 10,776 cars were hijacked over the six-month period.
This is only a 0.9% decrease compared to the first six months of 2023. However, this equates to approximately 60 cars being stolen daily, which is still a notable concern.
According to the SAPS, for the most recent quarter (Q1 2024/25), two provinces experienced a notable year-on-year increase (>10%) in hijackings: the Eastern Cape (30%) and the Western Cape (17%).
Ngcobo added that across the country, a higher proportion of vehicles are reported hijacked on Fridays and between 16h00 and 20h00.
Theft is mainly reported on Saturdays and between 11h00 and 15h00.