Hijacking and vehicle theft on the up, mostly in Gauteng

Incidents of vehicle theft and hijacking rose 12% and 14% respectively in 2022, as the post Covid-19 pandemic back-to-office trend found criminals spoilt for opportunities to pounce compared to the previous year.

This is according Tracker South Africa Vehicle Crime Index (VCI) data released this month.

Collected from 1.1 million vehicles installed with Tracker devices, the data shows that Gauteng and the Western Cape lead as the provinces with the highest number of registered incidents in 2022.

Nationally, vehicle crime incidents rose by 13%, while Gauteng and the Western Cape saw increases of 18% and 14% respectively.

Incident rates in both provinces were driven by increases in vehicle theft and hijackings. In Gauteng, vehicle theft increased by 22% and hijackings by 15%.

“These year-on-year increases in observed incident volumes to our base significantly exceed our annual subscriber growth,” chief operating officer Duma Ngcobo said in a statement.

“We saw opportunistic vehicle crime, like hijackings, increase during the Covid-19 lockdown period and this violent crime has unfortunately remained elevated following a return to normal daily routines.”

“Moreover, thefts are also on the rise, with newer criminal tactics such as keyless entry theft contributing to this increase,” Ngcobo added.

Read: Robberies surge as criminals take advantage of South Africa’s power outages

Source: Tracker SA Vehicle Crime Index 2022

Common targets

One of the country’s most recognised vehicle tracking companies further found that amid a rise in on-demand delivery services, light delivery vehicles (LDVs) have become a target for such crimes.

“The movement of people out of lockdown cycles and the large-scale return to work environments and ‘business as usual’ means that the availability of vehicles on the roads has significantly increased. Aligned to this, theft and hijacking opportunities have therefore also increased,” Ngcobo said in response to Moneyweb’s emailed questions.

“Added into the mix is the elevation in [the] use of courier services and online retail delivery services to business premises and households, generating an increased targeting of LDV delivery vehicles, for both the vehicle and its contents.”

Vehicles used for e-hailing services and business-owned hatchback vehicles are also being targeted. In the case of private motorists criminals are tending to target both hatchback vehicles and sedans.

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Methods

The report found that the use of “keyless entry” is the most preferred method, especially for newer vehicles equipped with the technology.

“There is a regional dimension to theft and hijack. Certain provinces or municipalities have a far greater hijacking rate, while others exhibit greater theft propensity.

“At a national level, hijacking volumes are significantly higher than theft,” Ngcobo said.

Tracker’s next set of data painting the picture for vehicle crime in the first half of 2023 will be released in August. However, an assessment of anecdotal evidence already available to the company notes that intensified load shedding could soon be another key driver of vehicle theft incidents countrywide.

This comes as parts of South Africa – especially KwaZulu-Natal – are reportedly experiencing a rise in house breaking incidents during blackouts, also creating the opportunity for vehicle crime to thrive.

Tracker adds that rolling blackouts are having an impact on the company’s attempts to reach customers for vehicle recoveries.

“We have also noticed and are monitoring and mitigating a certain degree of degradation in our proactive contact attempts to our customers when it comes to verifying alerts received through our early warning technology,” Ngcobo said.

“While this has had no material impact on our vehicle recoveries due to additional checks and balances implemented to compensate for customers not being contactable, it remains a concern.”

Read: Ominous cloud hangs over Sasria cover in the event of a total blackout