South African provider of cash services and solutions, SBV Services, on Thursday announced a crime-fighting partnership with anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee in the fight against cash-in-transit crimes.
Abramjee is currently the global communications director of Crime Stoppers International (CSI) and also chair of its media committee. He has won numerous awards for his involvement in local and global anti-crime initiatives.
Mark Barrett, group chief executive of SBV Services, said that current crime levels were a challenge to the cash services sector and also threatened the integrity of South Africa’s economy.
Barrett said that SBV knows that Abramjee is at the forefront of South Africa’s conversations around crime, including cash-in-transit crime, and that they support his effort to highlight this issue.
“We recognise the role that we play in fighting cash-in-transit crime and have partnered with Yusuf to bring our concerns to the forefront and to raise awareness on cash-in-transit related crime. The solution to the high levels of cash in transit crimes does not lie in the hands of the police alone,” Barrett said.
“The security industry must join forces with public sector policing, as well as with retail banks and the general public, to overcome the scourge of attacks. Going forward we will only succeed in the battle against cash-in-transit crime through high levels of collaboration between all role players including the cash-in-transit companies, the authorities and the commercial business sector.”
Yusuf tweeted that there had already been 34 attacks on cash vans on South African roads between 1 January to 4 April this year.
“Last year, there were nine over the same period. In 2016, there were 268 attacks and in 2017 there were 378. Dramatic increases,” he said. (via African News Agency)
