THEFT of trolleys at one of Richards Bay businesses, the past three years, has run into more than half a million rand.
Fruit and Veg City owner Vijay Ramluckan said they have been experiencing an on-going challenge with trolleys being stolen on a consistent basis.
‘With at least 20 trolleys disappearing monthly’, the businessman said this store was the most severely targeted in comparison to his stores in other areas.
This problem is not only impacting on his customers and causing an inconvenience, but also comes as an added cost to consumers as they have to be replaced.
‘Retailers lose thousands at the cost of these thefts and it impacts on our customers.
‘We have found the trolleys are being stripped and believe they are being sold for scrap.
‘With the cost of replacing a single trolley at R800, we have to raise awareness of this problem and try to eradicate and reduce it,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Zululand Business Against Crime Manager Dave Whittaker said he was aware of the on-going challenge experienced by outlets to secure and protect their resources.
He agreed that businesses were losing capital at the cost of thefts, but urged them to take proactive measures to aggressively collect their trolleys.
‘We have found that trolleys are being used for transport and people are taking them into the suburbs and townships and using them for collections and to cart goods.
‘In some instances, the trolleys are dismantled or modified to transport a range of different items.
‘The plastic trolleys can be found abandoned with the wheels removed as they might be used to make other carts.
‘This issue has not been raised at our monthly Non Ferrous Metal Task Team Forum (NFMTT) and we invite local business to join our meetings and contribute in combatting these crimes,’ he said.
The NFMTT meetings take place on the third Thursday of every month at 10am at the ZCBF Park Business Community Centre and stakeholders from different spheres meet to discuss challenges with crime and to find solutions.
