Deploying an underfunded, understaffed SA National Defence Force (SANDF) to help crack down on an upswing of cash-in-transit (CIT) heists has been described as a "bad idea" by defence experts.

They argue that crime-fighting does not fall within the SANDF's mandate and that it simply does not have the manpower to intervene.

Fidelity CEO Wahl Bartmann has publicly called for military deployment to mitigate CIT heists.

He says the industry needs support from the government in addressing increasing attacks on armoured vehicles and has bemoaned a lack of action from the SA Police Service (SAPS).

Bartmann said the company had lost 16 security officers since March.

"From an operational perspective, the safety of our officers is a priority. We have spent millions on upgrading the security of our vehicles to protect our officers as well as their protective clothing, [and] we constantly train our officers and alter our routes.

"We have also introduced additional land and air support for the crews, but these CIT robbers are probably the most dangerous people in the South African criminal underworld," Bartman said.

He added that the "constant attacks are out of control and require more intervention and support".

"The issue is that CIT robberies keep increasing when looking at year-to-date figures over the past three years. We are just not getting on top of this scourge, and Gauteng is the province [that is] worst impacted.

"We need to find a way to close down the source so these syndicates cannot access these kinds of explosives, and we need better border control ... We are seeing a number of different groups and splinter groups which are hard to manage."

Amit Devir, managing director of G4S Cash Solutions, says South Africa has "witnessed a concerning surge in CIT heists, posing a significant threat to public safety and economic stability".

He added that the attacks were likely to increase as the country heads into the "high-risk holiday season".

"These brazen attacks are not mere crimes of opportunity but are meticulously planned and executed by highly organised, well-armed and violent criminal gangs.

"The escalating frequency and audacity of these heists demand immediate and concerted action from all stakeholders involved, including government, the SAPS, the private security industry and the judicial system," said Devir.

He added that "force multipliers" were needed to augment law enforcement efforts, and that could include support from the SANDF.

"G4S believes that more can, and must, be done to ensure that CIT crime is urgently prioritised and that greater focus, resources, intelligence and expertise are deployed by law enforcement and government to secure arrests, prosecutions and convictions," Devir said.

He added that "swift and decisive action" against CIT robbers "acts as a powerful deterrent".

"When potential perpetrators see that law enforcement effectively prevents and prosecutes these crimes, it discourages others. Deterrence is crucial to breaking the cycle of criminal behaviour.

"From our side, ensuring our people's safety and wellbeing is a constant priority. This is especially critical given the nature of their work and the daily risks that they face. For this reason, we invest significantly, and on an ongoing basis, in equipping our frontline personnel with the necessary training, resources, vehicles, equipment and tactical support they require for their protection."

Security company SBV had not responded at the time of publication.

However, defence analyst Dean Wingrin said crime-fighting does not fall within the SANDF's mandate.

"The SANDF has a very particular mandate for the defence of citizens, and it's not there to perform internal policing work. That's the task of the SAPS.

"Policing CIT heists requires intelligence-led operations and policing competency. The SANDF has a very different way of working to the SAPS and is trained to execute tasks in a different way to organisations that interface with civilians," he said.

He added that the SANDF was struggling with budget and personnel cuts and could not be "called on every time there is a crisis in another government department".

"Of course, the SANDF assists where it can, but that's not its primary mandate. The SANDF already has a shortage of soldiers and cannot afford to take personnel away from missions and training. It's not like the SANDF has excess staff sitting around playing cards."

Defence expert Darren Olivier said: "Like most requests to deploy the SANDF for fighting crime, this is a bad idea."

He said the SANDF lacked the specialised skills, capabilities, personnel numbers and legal authority in areas such as criminal investigation – which the SAPS has – and deploying the military would not "solve the problem of CIT heists".

"It's more logical to set up specialised CIT task teams that rely on specialist SAPS units such as the Special Task Force, Tactical Reaction Team and the National Intervention Unit for tactical work; on the State Security Agency and the SAPS' Crime Intelligence department for intelligence on the criminal syndicates involved; and on the Hawks for prosecution support. This model has been used with some success before," he said.

Olivier added that the SANDF was already "badly overstretched", underfunded and "cannot afford another unfunded deployment".

He said the SANDF was made up of "not a very large force, with only 60 000 or so uniformed members".

"Between border patrol, the counter-insurgency mission in northern Mozambique, participation in the peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the need to regularly deploy contingency forces within South Africa, there are no additional troops available for anything more than a brief, short-term mission," said Olivier.

When asked if the SANDF had been consulted on interventions to halt CIT heists, spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini said "no one has approached the SANDF in that regard".

The SAPS had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.

Bartmann previously told News24 that there had been an "unacceptably high number of CIT incidents across the industry".

"At least we would expect authorities to concentrate resources where the majority of the attacks are taking place," he said.

News24 reported that, according to the Cash-In-Transit Association of SA (Citasa), there had been 217 CIT robberies across the country between January and August 2023, compared with 191 in 2022 and 188 in 2021.

Citasa's Grant Clark said 59% of CIT robberies were directed at armoured vehicles. Most robberies took place in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

Last week proved to be a bloody one for CIT companies.

On Saturday, four security guards were injured during a robbery on the N12 highway in the Mondeor area in Johannesburg. One guard was shot and three others injured when the cash van was overturned and bombed.

After the heist, a woman driving a BMW was hijacked and forced to drive the robbers towards Soweto. They stopped near Diepkloof and the robbers got into getaway vehicles.

Three other robberies took place in KwaZulu-Natal in three days, ending in a deadly shootout with police on Friday. Hours after a robbery, police were led to a "haven" in KwaMashu, where the suspected robbers opened fire and four of them were killed in the resulting shootout.

Also last week, two people were killed in a CIT heist in Tsolo in the Eastern Cape – one of them a driver caught in the crossfire between security guards and robbers.

Mathe said the robbers threw explosives at the armoured vehicle, which caused it to overturn and catch fire.

Back-up security guards arrived on the scene, leading to a shootout. One suspected robber was killed.