Boom goes cash van

The explosion ripped through the cash van, peeled off its roof and reverberated through a residential neighbourhood 800m away.

The robbers used four separate sets of explosives - possibly dynamite - and despite the earth-shattering blasts, they still couldn't get to the money.

Several minutes after they stopped traffic on the busy N3 highway in Ekurhuleni (Edenvale), going east towards Joburg, the 17 AK-47-wielding gunmen abandoned their quest for the millions secured behind a thick metal safe.

It was a day of high drama on the N3 as hordes of curious spectators gathered on overhead bridges and on the side of the road to watch the events unfold.

Police investigators worked for hours, wading through the mangled wreck of the cash van, dusting for fingerprints and taking photographs for any clues that might lead them to the gang.

It was a terrifying sight for the Gauteng cash-in-transit heist task team. It was the first time robbers had used explosives to pull off a heist in Gauteng - a trend investigators fear may occur more frequently as the end-of-year "heist season" swings into full gear.

A highly placed source said that Monday's attack was only the third time that robbers had used explosives in an attempted cash-in-transit heist in South Africa.

"This is a very new tactic and they more than likely could be linked to ATM bombings," he said.

Explosives have been used by robbers in recent years to blow up ATMs, usually in isolated areas and in the early hours of the morning.

A police task force set up to investigate these attacks has managed to curb the amount of attacks in recent weeks, but now it seems robbers may have set their sights on blowing up cash vans.

Monday's attempted heist occurred just before 10am as peak traffic began to ease on the highway. Police say the cash van was travelling from Springs to Johannesburg when the driver and his crewman noticed they were being tailed by a Toyota Quantum, a blue Volvo and a Mercedes.

Alberton police spokesperson Inspector Annzuette Erasmus said that as the van had approached the Rand Airport interchange bridge, the Volvo forced it off the road.

The robbers, all wearing balaclavas and armed with an assortment of weapons, got out of their vehicles and stopped traffic by training their guns on motorists.

The gang fired at the security guards to force them out of their vehicle, with one shot shattering the bullet-proof window on the driver's side.

The gang forced the guards out of their vehicle and ordered them to lie on the ground, while their accomplices began placing explosives at the back of the van.

Aaron Sithole, who was on his way to work, was a few cars back when a minibus taxi abruptly stopped in front of him, causing him to ram into it. He thought there was an accident up ahead.

"I saw people getting out of their cars and running past me. I was confused and asked them why they were running.

"Suddenly, there was a loud bang, followed by another, boom, boom, boom," he said.

It was then that he realised he was stuck in the middle of a cash heist.

"I heard people running past me screaming 'they're robbing a cash van'."

Susan Prinsloo, who was at her Norton Small Farms home in Alberton, 800m away from the heist bid, felt the explosions.

"I heard four explosions … Our houses were shaking. At first we thought it was construction, and then we saw the traffic backing up, and we knew it was something on the road.

"I phoned 112 and they said maybe it was a cash-in-transit heist, because everybody had been phoning them," she said.

Gauteng police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman said nearby police units had responded quickly, but when they arrived on the scene, they were unable to get past motorists blocking the emergency lanes.

"If it hadn't been for that, we might have had a few arrests," he said.

He appealed to motorists to leave emergency lanes open at crime scenes or accident sites.

No one was injured during the attack.

The van is believed to belong to Giesecke & Devrient SA, an international company with offices in Germany and Dubai.

The company is not registered with the Private Security Industry of SA, and staff at its Ormonde office refused to comment.