Car hijacking up since '95
2004-09-20 22:49
Cape Town - Car hijacking, dubbed "carjacking" by police, is up from 12 912 cases reported in the 1996/'97 financial year to 13 793 cases in the 2003/'04 period.
However, according to figures released on Monday, the number of carjackings is down from 14 691 in 2002/'04. An overall peak was reached in 1998/'99 when 15 773 carjacking cases were reported countrywide.
But in two provinces the figures are up for the last two years - North West and Western Cape.
There were 1 015 cases reported in 2003/'04 in the Western Cape compared to 965 in 2002/'03 and this was up significantly from 273 cases in 1996/'97.
This makes this province carjacking's fastest growth area, although the overall figure for Gauteng in the last financial year was 8 664 - making it the carjacking "capital" province.
Gauteng's figures are down, however, from 9 371 in 2002/'03 but up from 7 613 in 1996/'97.
In North West, the figure is up to 446 in the 2003/'04 period from 430 the previous year. However, this is off a peak of 887 the previous year - 2001/'02.