Hero worship of CIT gangs should worry us all
It is a few weeks before the start of the festive season and, once again, cash-in-transit (CIT) heists seem to be on the rise. There is no scientific evidence linking “the big days” to such robberies. But, anecdotally, it does seem that the closer we get to December, the more reports there are of CIT vehicles being attacked, ATMs being bombed and other types of armed robberies being committed.
It was not always like this. There have been times, especially between 2008 and 2015, when CIT heists were few and far between, largely due to sterling work by dedicated members of police crime intelligence working closely with the banking industry.
But then the state capture years and bad politics broke the back of crime intelligence and business distanced itself from working with the government out of fear of being tainted by corruption.
The end result: we are almost back to the bad old days of 2006 when hardly a week went by without a depot or a CIT van being attacked.
Just yesterday, a gang armed with high-calibre weapons blew up a CIT vehicle on the N12 near Diepkloof in Soweto.
They escaped with an undisclosed amount of money. This was a second incident in as many weeks in the south of Johannesburg.
Similar attacks have been carried out in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal over the past few weeks. Experts tell us to brace for more such violence as gangs seek to make a quick buck ahead of the holiday season.
One of the most disturbing features of these robberies is the reaction of some members of the public. Soon after yesterday’s Diepkloof attack, scores of motorists abandoned their vehicles and ran towards the burning CIT truck in search of easy pickings.
They seemed not to care about the possibility of a secondary explosion. All they saw was an opportunity to line their pockets quickly.
Similar scenes played out earlier in the week when another CIT vehicle was ambushed and bombed on Malandela Road in KwaMashu, Durban.
Videos circulating on social media showed young people whistling and ululating as they watched the vehicle being ripped apart by explosives. As the robbers departed, scores of bystanders ran towards the main road in search of any bank notes that had been left behind.
Television news footage later showed that most of those scavenging among the debris were children of school-going age.
Social media reaction to the robbery made for depressing reading. “Great job, bafana,” wrote one Facebook contributor. Others also complimented the robbers, saying they saw nothing wrong with what they did because “even our government steals”.
When reports emerged, some two days later, that the police had killed or wounded some of the suspects in the KwaMashu robbery, you could sense the disappointment and anger among those who had been rooting for the criminals.
Purely judging by such posts, a section of society has accepted criminality as a way of life, even if they are not criminals themselves.
This should worry all of us. How can we win the battle against crime and violence when some of us believe criminal conduct can be justified?
Given our troubled history, anti-establishment sentiments are to be expected, especially in communities where high levels of unemployment and poverty make it hard for many to feel a sense of belonging.
But it is the duty of the rest of us to make our fellow South Africans realise their lives will not improve in an environment of wanton crime and anarchy.
To achieve that, however, we need different politics. A system that is not driven by the desire to line one’s pockets at the expense of everyone else.
When your political culture promotes the “get rich or die trying” attitude, you shouldn’t be surprised when people start treating common criminals like modern-day Robin Hoods and treating crime scenes as golden opportunities.
There is a depressing tendency for many South Africans to regard CIT gangs as heroes and latter-day Robin Hoods