Security guards play such an important role in SA – they even guard police stations and officers working there.
This statement made by a protestor during a march by union shop stewards in the Free State recently underlines the critical role played by the almost 500,000 watchmen and women in our country.
Security guards employed by private companies keep watch over important national key points including police stations, airports, hospitals, clinics, power stations and institutions of learning.
They risk their lives daily guarding business premises and homes, at all hours of the day, and are more often than not the first to come face to face with armed robbers and criminals. According to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira), a statutory body tasked with regulating the industry, there were 586,042 registered active security officers as at the end of March last year and 11,540 active registered private security businesses.
Psira has estimated the number of private security officers killed on duty at around 300 annually but industry players believe the number could be even double this figure as many guards are not officially registered by their employers. National police commissioner Gen Fani Masemola revealed in the 2020/21 annual report that “the SAPS’s staff establishment has been declining steadily over the past 10-year period. Measured against the peak of 2011/12, where the department had a total staff compliment of 199,345, the decrease in the establishment represents 8.8% (from 199,345 to 182,126), at the end of 2020/21.”
However while police officers enjoy benefits entitled to workers under employment and labour relations regulations, which include health care and medical aid and unemployment insurance, this is not the case for many security guards.
Unions organising in the private security sector indicate it is characterised by gross non-compliance to employment and labour regulations. This includes nonpayment of healthcare benefits to workers by employers. Private sector security companies have been accused by unions organising in the sector of deducting monies amounting to more than R50m per month from over 30,000 workers.
The matter has been investigated by the Council for Medical Schemes and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. Unions Abanqobi Workers Union (Awu), Kungwini Amalgamated Workers Union (Kawu), National Union of Metal Workers of SA (Numsa) and the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) have been actively involved in a "payback campaign" against non-compliant security companies since January.
Among other demands, they want government departments and agencies to cancel their contracts with non-compliant companies and arrest their directors for breaking the law.
The agreement stipulated that the scheme was to be administered by Affinity Health and workers were to pay a compulsory R250 monthly insurance, half of which was deducted from salaries.
The SA Security Association notes in an article in iFacts, an employee screening services company, that “the private security industry is currently under serious threat from non-compliance by fly-by-night security companies, who use various means of avoiding statutory costs and exploiting the labour force".
Other challenges plaguing the industry include non-registration of workers with the relevant institutions and companies not being registered with the Psira. Trade union federation Cosatu’s general secretary Solly Phetoe blames the challenges on a failure by Psira, which falls under the SAPS, and the department of employment and labour. Phetoe said Psira and the department of employment and labour are failing to play their statutory role in regulating the industry.
The federation has thrown its weight behind a national campaign by the broader trade union movement to escalate action against non-compliant private security companies. These issues raised by the unions are not new and were catalysts to the violent security guard strikes in 2008 and 2010 which led to the brutal killings of more than 60 workers.
The question however remains why has the government been sluggish in regulating and enforcing compliance in such a critical industry especially after the strikes over a decade ago?
This is especially so since private security industry operations border closely around issues of state security.
Francois Botes, a representative of Maluti Security, noted during the march on the company’s offices that they receive hundreds of curriculum vitae from desperate job seekers every week.
He said efforts to force companies to comply should be done in a way that doesn’t compromise job security, an argument rejected by union officials.
Unions have been organising pockets of pickets at the premises of non-compliant companies and are set to escalate this action on a bigger, nationwide scale. Can the country, faced by a high rate of crime, afford a total shutdown by a security sector that far outnumbers the police force?
• Ledwaba is the founder and editor of Mukurukuru Media
LUCAS LEDWABA | Disregard for employment laws a hallmark of security industry
Government sluggish in regulating critical industry
Image: Lucas Ledwaba/Mukurukuru Media
Security guards play such an important role in SA – they even guard police stations and officers working there.
This statement made by a protestor during a march by union shop stewards in the Free State recently underlines the critical role played by the almost 500,000 watchmen and women in our country.
Security guards employed by private companies keep watch over important national key points including police stations, airports, hospitals, clinics, power stations and institutions of learning.
They risk their lives daily guarding business premises and homes, at all hours of the day, and are more often than not the first to come face to face with armed robbers and criminals. According to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira), a statutory body tasked with regulating the industry, there were 586,042 registered active security officers as at the end of March last year and 11,540 active registered private security businesses.
Psira has estimated the number of private security officers killed on duty at around 300 annually but industry players believe the number could be even double this figure as many guards are not officially registered by their employers. National police commissioner Gen Fani Masemola revealed in the 2020/21 annual report that “the SAPS’s staff establishment has been declining steadily over the past 10-year period. Measured against the peak of 2011/12, where the department had a total staff compliment of 199,345, the decrease in the establishment represents 8.8% (from 199,345 to 182,126), at the end of 2020/21.”
However while police officers enjoy benefits entitled to workers under employment and labour relations regulations, which include health care and medical aid and unemployment insurance, this is not the case for many security guards.
Unions organising in the private security sector indicate it is characterised by gross non-compliance to employment and labour regulations. This includes nonpayment of healthcare benefits to workers by employers. Private sector security companies have been accused by unions organising in the sector of deducting monies amounting to more than R50m per month from over 30,000 workers.
The matter has been investigated by the Council for Medical Schemes and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority. Unions Abanqobi Workers Union (Awu), Kungwini Amalgamated Workers Union (Kawu), National Union of Metal Workers of SA (Numsa) and the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) have been actively involved in a "payback campaign" against non-compliant security companies since January.
Among other demands, they want government departments and agencies to cancel their contracts with non-compliant companies and arrest their directors for breaking the law.
The agreement stipulated that the scheme was to be administered by Affinity Health and workers were to pay a compulsory R250 monthly insurance, half of which was deducted from salaries.
The SA Security Association notes in an article in iFacts, an employee screening services company, that “the private security industry is currently under serious threat from non-compliance by fly-by-night security companies, who use various means of avoiding statutory costs and exploiting the labour force".
Other challenges plaguing the industry include non-registration of workers with the relevant institutions and companies not being registered with the Psira. Trade union federation Cosatu’s general secretary Solly Phetoe blames the challenges on a failure by Psira, which falls under the SAPS, and the department of employment and labour. Phetoe said Psira and the department of employment and labour are failing to play their statutory role in regulating the industry.
The federation has thrown its weight behind a national campaign by the broader trade union movement to escalate action against non-compliant private security companies. These issues raised by the unions are not new and were catalysts to the violent security guard strikes in 2008 and 2010 which led to the brutal killings of more than 60 workers.
The question however remains why has the government been sluggish in regulating and enforcing compliance in such a critical industry especially after the strikes over a decade ago?
This is especially so since private security industry operations border closely around issues of state security.
Francois Botes, a representative of Maluti Security, noted during the march on the company’s offices that they receive hundreds of curriculum vitae from desperate job seekers every week.
He said efforts to force companies to comply should be done in a way that doesn’t compromise job security, an argument rejected by union officials.
Unions have been organising pockets of pickets at the premises of non-compliant companies and are set to escalate this action on a bigger, nationwide scale. Can the country, faced by a high rate of crime, afford a total shutdown by a security sector that far outnumbers the police force?
• Ledwaba is the founder and editor of Mukurukuru Media
Disgruntled security guards protest outside Chatsworth hospital
Four years after Tshwane promised to hire 4,000 security guards many endure hopeless wait
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending
Related articles
Latest Videos