Drivers paid R30 000 to collect box and disappear DESPITE EXTENSIVE efforts on the part of harbour authorities at Portnet's Durban container terminal and various private depots, boxes are still being stolen, according to Durban's Truck and Theft Unit of the SA Police Services.
Not only do they (the container terminals and depots) not know whether something has been stolen, but they sometimes don't even know that they had the container in the first place, FTW was told this week.
The police say the biggest problem is that standards of security are not up to the requisite level of sophistication to prevent container theft. We were told that syndicates are so efficient that they are constantly one step ahead of the industry.
According to the police spokesman, drivers are being paid up to R30 000 to collect a container from the container terminal or one of the private depots and to deliver it to an address somewhere in Durban, before taking leave of their jobs and disappearing. Others go in with false number plates and IDs and are unchallenged because there is no system to identify them.
The value placed on documentation goes even higher and proves irresistible to any lowly paid clerk who has the right sort of access. Our police informant revealed that syndicates were known to network with other organisations, whereas it is only recently that the police themselves have been able to begin comparing notes with other sectors of the SAPS. Only now are they starting to build up a casebook on known syndicate leaders, in the hopes of accumulating enough knowledge to eventually put them away.
Although the police say they are aware of how many of the syndicate leaders are, they find it difficult to obtain proof, as these people stay removed from the scene of the crime. The police work mainly through informants and pay for information, although this is known to be dangerous.
In a recent case the police, acting on information received, visited a man in a Durban hospital whom gangsters had suspected was a police informant. Despite his many injuries police received no assistance or complaint. I'd rather be in there with two broken legs than be very dead, was his response.
Syndicates are known to network with other organisations The technology and equipment available to police is also inadequate for the task, because not enough money is being made available.
Police would welcome pressure from business for better equipment The police have told FTW on several occasions they would welcome pressure from the business sector for better equipment and manpower. Simple matters, such as printing individual visiting cards for detectives, becomes a welcome token, saving the cop from having to pay for them out of his own pocket.
By Terry Hutson
