Restructuring could spell
disaster for truckers, writes Alan Peat
A PENDING disaster is looming for the trucking industry, as the crime-busting anti-hijack unit looks to be a victim of a forthcoming restructuring of the SA Police Services (SAPS).
News has just filtered out through the container trucking industry that the specialised, and highly-effective, police squad is to be disbanded.
Definitely a disaster, said Clifford Blackburn, m.d. of container transport major, IDC (International Delivery Company). We've always been able to rely on this team in our fight against the truck hijacking crime syndicates.
Shock figures have been released to FTW by IDC - revealing the massive impact that the crime of truck (and cargo) hijacking has on the trucking industry.
In Gauteng alone some 50 heavy goods vehicles are hijacked every month. According to anti-hijack squad estimates, the average value of each hijack is R1-million to R1.5-million a hit (vehicle and cargo value).
That's as much as R18.75-m a week or anything up to a stunning R1-billion a year!
And in crime alley - the N3 between Alberton and Heidelberg which is a favourite target area for the truck thieves - gun battles between the police squad and hijackers are frequent, Blackburn told FTW.
But the front-line team in the battle against this form of organised crime is to go, according to Isobel Louw, m.d. of Roadwing, and this will be catastrophic for the road transport industry.
There is to be a national restructuring of the police, she told FTW, creating an FBI look-alike, national, central unit, supposedly allowing a cross-feed between them and the local area police stations.
And, she added, all the specialised squads (organised crime, anti-hijacking, murder and robbery, for example) are to be absorbed into the central unit, or into the local region police stations.
If they were moved into the FBI look-alike as a unit, said Louw, that would be OK. But put out to various stations would be a disaster.
And, from police sources, it would appear that the worst is about to happen.
The anti-hijack squad has been officially told it is disbanding. It's only a matter of time, FTW was told.
The future for the squad members is also doubtful.
The central unit for fighting organised, serious, and violent crime in the North and East Rand will only be 50-strong, according to our source - and the anti-hijack- squad members have to apply individually for entry.
If we're not accepted, said FTW's contact, then it's back to general detective work at an individual station.
It's all intended to save a duplication of work between the special squads and the local forces, according to Blackburn. But it's effectively killing the best police team in the country, he said, and leaving the door wide open for a further escalation in truck hijacking.
Those syndicates sitting out there know what's happening. They'll be delighted to know that their main opposition is to disappear.
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