{"id":870924,"date":"2026-08-22T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870924"},"modified":"2026-08-21T17:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:21:12","slug":"criminals-targeting-another-group-of-people-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/870924\/criminals-targeting-another-group-of-people-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminals targeting another group of people in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Criminals are targeting e-hailing drivers in South Africa daily, with dash cameras increasingly bringing incidents into the public spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/afternoon-drive-702\/e-hailing-drivers-robbed-is-becoming-a-daily-occurrence\">interview with 702 Drive<\/a>, Melithemba Mnguni, secretary general of the E-hailing Partners Council, said the attacks should not necessarily be viewed as a recent increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It should be viewed as a long-standing problem that is now being documented more frequently because more drivers are installing dash cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe robberies, like we always say, are on a daily basis. I wouldn&#8217;t really say they are increasing, because they&#8217;ve been constant for a long time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The council had hoped that the growing use of dash cameras would discourage criminals from targeting drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Mnguni said the footage emerging from these devices showed how brazen some attackers had become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;ve been hoping\u2014now that a lot of people are moving to dash cameras\u2014that [robberies] would subside and go down, but seemingly that&#8217;s how brazen these guys are,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He referred to a recent incident in which a female driver was robbed despite the attackers being aware that they were being recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was just watching this one where they robbed the lady. They could see the camera, and he was actually insulting the camera,\u201d Mnguni said. \u201cSo it&#8217;s really getting out of hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Mnguni, e-hailing drivers are particularly vulnerable because criminals can use the platforms themselves to arrange a meeting with their intended victim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of having to find a driver on the street, a criminal can request a trip to a location where the driver may be isolated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mnguni said another major concern was criminals&#8217; ability to infiltrate some e-hailing platforms by creating passenger profiles and masquerading as legitimate customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While dash cameras have provided valuable evidence of attacks, Mnguni said they had not deterred criminals to the extent the council had hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More support for drivers is needed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Uber.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Uber-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-814980\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Uber-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Uber-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Uber-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Uber.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Mnguni also criticised what he described as insufficient support for drivers from some e-hailing companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the council had previously pushed for drivers to receive compensation when they were robbed or injured while working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, there is no support. We actually fought and said that they should be able to compensate drivers when they are robbed during trips, injured, and so forth,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said some medical cover that companies had previously agreed to provide had since been withdrawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo right now, when you lose your phone, it&#8217;s on you. You lose whatever possessions you have or get injured, and they don&#8217;t intervene,\u201d Mnguni said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He argued that the lack of adequate support contributed to concerns about whether companies had enough incentive to implement stronger security measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mnguni made an exception for Uber and said the platform&#8217;s passenger verification requirements appeared to make it less attractive to criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said attacks were more prevalent on other platforms where users could allegedly register with fewer identifying details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOn the Uber platform, that&#8217;s why a lot of criminals wouldn&#8217;t commit that crime\u2014because they know that there is that verification. But you don&#8217;t get the same on the other platforms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mnguni also raised concerns about law enforcement&#8217;s ability to trace criminals using certain platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said some operators were not sufficiently connected to law enforcement authorities, making it more difficult to investigate incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe don&#8217;t know where they operate from. They are not accountable to anyone, and so forth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than relying primarily on self-defence measures, Mnguni said the council wanted companies to introduce preventive measures that would make it harder for criminals to use their platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat we always advocate for are preventative measures, where what we are saying about Uber should be a standard across all platforms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Criminals are targeting e-hailing drivers in South Africa daily, with dash cameras increasingly bringing incidents into the public spotlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":833152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2091133547046195580","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2183447532475646","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18108040805141545","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[1910,26218,853],"class_list":["post-870924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-crime","tag-e-hailing-partners-council","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870924","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=870924"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871229,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870924\/revisions\/871229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}