{"id":794802,"date":"2024-10-14T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=794802"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:10:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T12:10:39","slug":"south-africas-hijacker-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/794802\/south-africas-hijacker-highway\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s ‘hijacker highway’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tracker\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tracker Vehicle Crime Index aggregates information from Tracker\u2019s more than 1.1 million subscriptions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data indicates that in the Eastern Cape, a personal vehicle is four times more likely to be hijacked than stolen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, in the province, it is nine times likelier for a business-owned vehicle to be hijacked rather than stolen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highest propensity toward business vehicle crime occurs in the Eastern Cape, with 43% over-representation relative to Tracker\u2019s business-owned vehicle subscriber base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the concerning vehicle crime stats for the province, Tracker COO Duma Ngcobo flagged the N2 highway to towards Gqeberha as a concern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCrime 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“However, more concerning is that crime along the N2 corridor towards Gqeberha has significantly increased. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Given the economic situation in the Eastern Cape, a province with significant unemployment, this is most likely opportunistic crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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,\u201d Ngcobo added.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
N2 highway between Mthatha and Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A personally owned vehicle in the Western Cape also has a higher propensity to vehicle crime at 22% over-representation relative to Tracker\u2019s subscriber base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s Gauteng vehicle subscriber base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While 51% of all nationwide hijackings occur in Gauteng due to vehicle volumes, Gauteng experiences more theft at 53% versus hijacking at 47%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that does not mean there’s no reason to stay alert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s busiest highways, especially in Gauteng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracker’s data seems to align with that of the South African Police Service (SAPS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presenting the latest quarterly crime statistics for the fourth quarter of 2023\/24 and the first quarter of 2024\/25 \u2013 January to June 2024 \u2013 the South African Police Service (SAPS) noted that 10,776 cars were hijacked over the six-month period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ngcobo added that across the country, a higher proportion of vehicles are reported hijacked on Fridays and between 16h00 and 20h00. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theft is mainly reported on Saturdays and between 11h00 and 15h00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: Big change for security estates in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This major South African highway has seen a concerning increase in hijackings in 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":794924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[10150,3888,853,7535],"class_list":["post-794802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-hijacking","tag-saps","tag-south-africa","tag-tracker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794802"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":794992,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794802\/revisions\/794992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}