Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

DESPERATE cash-in-transit guards are appealing to the government to deploy heavily armed SANDF troops to protect them as they enter the festive season, which is notorious for an escalation in violent gang robberies.

They are to meet national Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi tomorrow morning -- in the wake of two more cash-heist attacks yesterday that cost another guard his life.

The guard was killed and another was wounded in a heist in Durban; in a separate incident, a gang of 16 made off with an undisclosed sum following a robbery in Johannesburg.

Earlier this week, a cash-in-transit heist in central Johannesburg claimed the youngest victim of the scourge, 15-month-old Khensani Mitileni, who was shot dead on Tuesday while strapped to her mother's back.

At a meeting scheduled for 10am in Tshwane, the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) -- which has more than 500000 members -- and its affiliate, the 5000-strong Motor Transport Workers' Union (MTWU), will tell Selebi that their members are powerless against the brazen gangs that kill with impunity.

They want Selebi to agree to bring in the military to protect guards and the public when money is moved in cities, shopping centres and malls.

They will tell Selebi it is "suicidal" to send guards armed with 9mm pistols to defend cash against criminals armed with AK-47s.

And they will tell him that security guards are unable to perform their jobs because they fear being shot dead or burnt alive.

Armed troops were last seen on South Africa's streets in the dying days of apartheid when the National Party government was battling to keep a lid on township violence. The South African government is known to be cautious about deploying troops to do police work as this would militarise society and create a siege psychosis.

Emily Fourie, general secretary of the MTWU, said yesterday that the call was backed by South Africa's top cash-management companies, Fidelity, SBV and Coin Security, who move billions of rands countrywide.

Wahl Bartmann, chief executive of Fidelity Springbok Security Services, said the government needed to be more involved in fighting cash-in-transit heists. He supported the call for the army to be brought in.

"These people will do anything for money," he said -- and the army would be better equipped to fight off cash-in-transit gangs, who were often former military people.

He said guards were outnumbered and outgunned by well-organised gangs who travelled in groups of more than 10 and carried automatic weapons.

Fourie said the death of Baby Khensani this week was the final straw.

As the picture of her body lying in a street made front pages around the country, cash-in-transit guards were threatening a national strike.

Such action would have plunged the country into a crisis as billions of rands would not have been banked or moved.

But the strike was averted late on Friday, following talks between Fedusa, MTWU and Fidelity, Coin Security and SBV.

Fourie said security guards had to bear the brunt of the murder and mayhem.

"They are so traumatised. If they are lucky enough to survive a heist, they are then put on a lie-detector to find out if they were involved.

"If they hand the money over, they are asked why they gave in so easily ... They cannot win."

Grant Dunnington is chief executive of SBV, which last month had to deal with the gruesome deaths of three of its guards, who were burnt to death after a gang doused their van with petrol and set it alight in a heist in Limpopo.

He said: "Any additional support would be welcomed. It is up to the police to ask for the military to assist if they cannot provide the support.

"We support Emily Fourie in terms of what she needs, and we asked her if she wanted us to go with her to the police commissioner, but she wanted to go on her own," he said.

According to the latest crime statistics cash-in-transit heists have surged by 74% in the past year.