Fidelity’s CEO said in 2023 alone, the private security company lost sixteen guards and a further fifty guards were injured in cash-in-transit heists¸ which increased by 30% in the country comparative to the same period in 2022.

A Fidelity cash-in-transit van. Picture: Facebook/FidelitySecure

JOHANNESBURG - Despite investing millions of rand in an attempt to better protect their cash vans, Fidelity Security Services said it was losing when it came to cash-in-transit robberies.

The country has seen more than 250 cash-in-transit robberies since January, a 30% increase from what was recorded during the same period in 2022.

Fidelity’s CEO, Wahl Bartmann, said sixteen of their guards were killed and fifty others were injured in cash-in-transit-related incidents in 2023 alone, adding they invested millions in trying to stem the scourge of cash-in-transit robberies.

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“We’re currently running seven helicopters flying every day. We’ve increased those hours to have the visibility there," Bartmann said.

"We run more than 1,000 trucks a day, but it's difficult to monitor each and every one of them. We are in the process of building bigger vehicles but they’re just using more and more explosives.”

Defence analyst Dean Windgreen said the tactics used by the cash-in-transit gangs were militaristic in nature.

“I strongly suspect that quite a few of the members have formal military training.”

According to the Cash-in-Transit Association of South Africa (CITASA), the majority of heists were committed in Gauteng, followed by the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Limpopo.