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The Consumer Goods Risk Initiative says armed robberies in shopping centres rose by 60% in 2012/2013 - compared to the same period in 2011/2012.
CGRI CEO, James Oosthuizen says the highest targeted commodity in shopping centre robbery incidents in 2013 are cellphones.
He says the majority of cellphone robberies took place in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
CGRI is a unit within the Consumer Goods Council of SA that specialises in preventing crime in the retail industry.
It was recently involved in developing a cash distribution system for shopping centres in Johannesburg, designed to decrease cash-in-transit robberies.