Gauteng remains South Africa’s vehicle crime hot spot. This is according to Tracker’s latest Vehicle Crime Index (VCI), covering the six months from January to June 2022.

With national incidents back to pre-Covid levels, this elevation can partly be attributed to increased vehicle volumes on the road post-Covid, as well as new methods employed by criminals and crime syndicates, such as keyless access theft, warns the Tracker VCI.

Keyless access theft involves a pair or team of criminals, one of whom could discreetly follow vehicle owners as they walk away from a locked vehicle, all the while amplifying the constantly transmitted signal received from the vehicle’s key fob to a criminal counterpart, who may then gain access to the vehicle and drive away with it.

The VCI aggregates information from Tracker’s more than 1.1-million installed vehicle trackers.

The latest index illustrates that vehicle crime continues to intensify in Gauteng, which accounts for 61% of national Tracker incidents, up from 58% for the latter half of 2021.

This is followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 17% of total incidents, and the Western Cape at 8%.

Tracker COO Duma Ngcobo says vehicle theft within the Tracker vehicle population is up 7% nationally by volume, and hijackings up 4% over the previous review period.

“Gauteng incident volumes have increased 10% from the last review period, with theft comprising 48% of incidents and hijackings 52%.

We believe the increase in incident volumes can, in part, be attributed to a return to normal as people make their way back to their places of work and as social activities ramp up following the relaxation of Covid-19 protocols,” says Ngcobo.

While vehicle-crime volumes have notably escalated in Gauteng, overall vehicle-crime volumes for all other provinces remain largely unchanged from the prior review period.

KwaZulu-Natal’s 58%-hijacking to 42%-theft ratio reflects a recent increase in hijacking propensity, while the Western Cape’s figures still show that hijackings dominate incidents in the province, with a 76%-hijacking to 24%-theft ratio.

“We have seen that the upward trajectory in hijackings we have tracked through the Covid months may have turned a corner, with the first decrease in the ratio of national hijackings versus thefts recorded since the start of Covid,” notes Ngcobo.

With more vehicles on the road now than during Covid-19’s restrictions, there appears to be greater opportunity for criminals to steal vehicles, rather than resort to hijacking.

Tracker notes that while vehicle-crime incidents occur throughout the day and night, and every day of the week, there is an escalation in hijackings between midweek and Friday, with late afternoon until early evening showing the highest incidence, between the hours of 16:00 and 20:00.

Reported thefts are most prevalent between 11:00 and 15:00, with theft volumes escalating on Saturdays.

For the January to June 2022 period, Tracker’s efforts resulted in 3 110 vehicle recoveries, 273 arrests and the recovery of 19 firearms.