Fridays between 11h00 and 15h00 are when the most hijackings are reported in South Africa, and Saturdays between 11h00 and 15h00 are when the most car thefts are reported.
However, these incidents have an equal chance of taking place as the hijack-to-theft ratio between January and June 2023 was relatively even at around a 50/50 split, revealed Tracker’s latest Vehicle Crime Index which aggregates information from the company’s 1.1 million subscribers.
Gauteng is still the province that experiences the most vehicle crime in South Africa, accounting for a considerable 60% of total incidents, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 17% and the Western Cape at 9%.
“Crime sophistication varies provincially, usually linked to emerging crime opportunities, such as changes within regional transportation logistics,” says Duma Ngcobo, Chief Operating Officer at Tracker.
“We are currently seeing the emergence of more sophisticated vehicle crime syndicates in Gauteng and escalating violence accompanying vehicle crime in KwaZulu-Natal.”
Commercial cars more likely to be hijacked
As opposed to passenger cars that have equal likelihood of being stolen or hijacked, business vehicles in South Africa have nearly double the chance of being hijacked (65%) than stolen (35%).
When examining business vehicle crime, Gauteng once again comes out on top with 55% of all incidents reported in the province, noticeably far ahead of KwaZulu-Natal at 16% and the Western Cape at 14%.
However, KwaZulu-Natal business vehicles are more likely to encounter vehicle crime as the region exceeds the proportional representation of crime incidents by 27%, said Tracker. This is followed by Gauteng, exceeding the proportional representation of crime incidents by 16%.
Business vehicles in the Western Cape, on the other hand, are less likely to experience vehicle crime relative to Tracker’s national business customer base, yet are six times more likely to be hijacked than stolen.
Second to Gauteng in terms of business vehicle hijacking volume, the Western Cape has a hijacking-to-theft ratio of 85% to 15%.
There is also statistically lower business vehicle crime collectively for provinces other than Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape. However, the crime that occurs in these regions is again skewed towards hijacking, with business vehicles in these areas three times more likely to encounter hijacking versus theft.
Keyword: Time and day when hijackings happen the most in South Africa