Up to 600 security guards killed annually in South Africa

As violent crime spirals out of control, security guards, the first line of defence for many South Africans, have also come under increasing attack, with up to 300 security guards apparently killed in the line of duty annually.

The Association of Private Security Owners of South Africa (Taptosa) is convinced the number could be as high as 600, as many additional cases were not recorded as deaths on duty.

Industry role players have also lamented that though the private security industry was the biggest after mining, there was scant regard to the industry, which has seen the mushrooming of exploitative and unscrupulous companies.

Security guards are also targeted during service delivery protests and strikes, with some of the first people to be killed in 2012 in Marikana, North West, in the run up to the August 16 massacre, being two Lonmin security guards who were hacked to death.

According to Taptosa, industry regulator Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) relied on private security companies for information on employees killed while on duty, but said this data was first sanitised to conceal non-compliance.

Incidents of non-compliance included hiring foreign nationals and arming guards with firearms without competency certificates.

Also Read: Security group, police exchange fire as 700 guns ‘go missing’

Whilst PSIRA is yet to respond to questions, the Security Association of South Africa (SASA) said it doubted if the regulator would be able to provide statistics to verify this.

Unreliable data

National administrator Tony Botes said this was because PSIRA was only advised by the security businesses on a monthly basis, online, that a security officer is active, retired, or deceased.

He said, for example, PSIRA’s database had close to 2 million registered security officers, but that the fact was that only about 550,000 were registered and active.

“…and this does not include the many thousands of unregistered we believe to be active in the industry, many – of course – possibly undocumented foreigners,” Botes said.

He said the statutory industry provident fund Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF), which has been rocked by financial abuse, mismanagement and tender irregularities, would handle all death and funeral claims.

But Botes said the challenge was that only about 25% of security businesses were actually registered with that fund.

“It is also doubtful whether they will be able to draw stats to indicate whether the death claim resulted from natural or unnatural causes and, if the latter, whether that occurred in the scope or course of his employment,” he added.

Deadly business

Lebo Nare, Taptosa deputy president, said despite being the biggest industry after mining, the private security industry was probably also the most unscrupulous and exploitative, due to the lack of focus on the industry.

He said the industry was twice the size of the SA National Defence Force and the SA Police Service combined, with government being the biggest consumer of private security services, but said it was the most overlooked.

Also Read: PICS: Security firms in SA employ more personnel than the police

“This allows company owners to get away with a lot, including hiding the fact that a security guard died on duty because that guard is a foreign national who should not have been hired in the first place, let alone be given a firearm,” Nare said.

He said official figures indicated that at least between 250 and 300 security guards were killed annually but said the figure was much higher.

According to Nare, in many cases in such deaths, honesty would not benefit the security company owner, meaning it is in the best interest of the company to be economical with the truth.

Terrible working conditions

The Private Security Sector Forum has told a story of a case where two security guards were ambushed and killed while on duty, but their employer denied any knowledge of them.

ALSO READ: looming-security-strike-can-the-repeat-of-the-2006-violence-be-avoided

“We had two cases in March of people who got shot on duty when the company was called, they denied that they knew those people,” secretary Paulos Mofokeng said.

The Private Security Sector Forum also shared the same sentiments about the industry, saying the regulator was failing security guards and that government had scant regard for the industry.

This despite in June the DA revealing that government departments splashed R11 billion on private security over the last five years.

Mofokeng said some companies did not even issue firearms to guards expected to be on armed reaction response, making them sitting ducks for violent criminals.

He said in some cases, guards are posted on locations with no one to vouch for them or back them up in case of an attack.

“Most companies have one radio that is installed in a car and when you leave the car to investigate an alarm, there is no backup radio,” Mofokeng said.

“Our officers are dying and some do not even get assistance from companies, or some do not even get their provident fund because companies are corrupt. Some of the members do not know their pension fund trustees because when they ask, they are threatened with being fired.”

SA Transport and Allied Workers Union shop steward Hamilton Ntonga said companies would go to any length to protect themselves from taking responsibility, sacrificing their own employees.

“The security industry is rotten to the core and nobody cares. For instance, there is a grueling twelve hour shift, and it takes you about two hours to get to work, with paltry monthly salary of R5 500. Many do not even have guardrooms,” Ntonga said.