Sharpening the Axe: Identifying and Closing Gaps Within the Training Space of the South African Private Security Industry

Authors

  • Linda Mbana Department of Safety and Security Management, Faculty of Humanities, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa
  • Jacob T. Mofokeng Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Limpopo, South Africa
  • Witness Maluleke Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Limpopo, South Africa
  • Dorcas Khosa Department of Safety and Security Management, Faculty of Humanities, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2021.10.161

Keywords:

Closing gaps, private security industry, training space

Abstract

The ever-present threat of crime in South Africa continues to drive the rise and demand for Private Security Industry (PSI) services amongst various governmental institutions, businesses and citizens to ensure their safety. This rise for the Private Security Services (PSS) persistently presents new challenges to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSiRA) such as poor security training standards and deployment of untrained security officers attached to the Private Security Companies (PSCs), which negatively impacts the professionalism of the security industry. This study was guided by this objective: Identifying and closing the gaps within South African training space of PSI. This qualitative study was guided by the exploratory research design. The judgemental sampling technique was adopted to sample 40 participants confined to Gauteng (GP), Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) and Western Cape (WC) Provinces. The selected relevant stakeholders were attached to the South African Police Service (SAPS), Department of Labour (DoLl), Department of Home Affairs (DoH), National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the legal fraternity) and the PSI Directors and security officers to form part of the Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and hybrid semi-structured interviews. The findings highlighted that the majority of the participants agreed that the private security industry training space is affected by security service providers letting PSiRA down by not training at, but rather engaging in, criminal activity through selling and people buying PSiRA security certificates. Some of the challenges mentioned include; poor training standards, non-compliance to legislated training standards, unqualified security training facilitators and outdated security Grades, misuse of security equipment leading to serious injuries and death, corruption in the industry, some of it being perpetrated by PSiRA inspectors, the very people who are supposed to keep the industry in check. This study recommends that, in order to overcome the challenges in the security training space, PSiRA needs to do away with the outdated security Grades by developing a new policy framework which will enable the creation of a new security-training curriculum and revise the training methods to suit the ever-changing security industry.

References

Abudu, A. M., Nuhu, Y. and Nkuah, K. J. 2013. Bridging the Security gap in Ghana: The role of Private Security Actors. Developing Country Studies Vol. 3(10), 11‒31.

ATLAS.ti. 2020. Atlas.ti Qualitative Data Analysis. Available from: https://atlasti.com/product/what-is-atlas-ti/. [Accessed: 6/09/2020].

Berg, J. 2017. Private security in Africa: Time to regulate the bad and harness the good. Available from: https://theconversation.com/private-security-in-africa-time-to-regulate-the-bad-and-harness-the-good-85793. [Accessed: 10/04/2020].

Berg, J. and Gabi, V. 2011. Regulating Private Security in South Africa; Context, challenges and recommendations. African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum.

Berg, J. and Howell, S. 2017. The Private security complex and its regulation in Africa: select examples from the continent. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 1‒14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01924036.2017.1364280

Creswell, J. W. and Creswell, J. D. 2018. Research Design, Qualitative, Quantitative & Mixed Methods Approaches. 5th Edition. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Cobalt Security Services 2020. Untrained guards problem for security companies. Available from: https://cobaltsecurityservices.com/ untrained-guards-problem-for-security-companies/ [Accessed: 23/08/2020].

Florquin, N. and Morales, A. 2011. A Booming Business Private Security and Small Arms. Available from: https://www.academia.edu/24018866/. [Accessed: 12/04/2020].

Foorthuis, R. and Bos, R. 2011. A Framework for Organizational Compliance Management Tactics. London: GRCIS, CAiSE Workshop on Governance, Risk and Compliance. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22056-2_28

Govender, D. 2020. Private Security Involvement in Crime Prevention: A Critical Evaluation. Available from: https://www.saps.gov.za/ resource_centre/publications/prof_govender_saps_research_colliquium_critical_evaluation.pdf. [Accessed: 12/12/2020].

Independent Online 2020. Second suspect arrested in fake certificates bust. Available from: https://www.iol.co.za/mercury/news/second-suspect-arrested-in-fake-certificates-bust-18449103 https://ewn.co.za/2013/05/06/Fake-security-certificates-been-around-for-year. [Accessed on: 27/09/2020]

Loader, I. and White, A. 2015. How can we better align private security with the public interest? Towards a civilizing model of regulation. Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12109

Mccrie, R. 2017. Private security services regulations in the United States today. Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Vol. 41, 1‒18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01924036.2017.1364281

Ndungu, B. 2020. The need to regulate private security in Zambia. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Vol. 11 (4), 1‒109.

Nemeth, C. P. 2012. The law of Arrest, Search, and Seizure (Fourth Edition.). Butterworth: Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-386922-7.00006-X

Nemeth, P. C. 2017. Private Security and the Law (5th Edition). Boca Raton: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315157191-5

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [NATO] ‒ Democratic Control of Armed Forces [DCAF]. 2010. Building Integrity and Reducing Corruption in Defence. A compendium of Best Practices. Available from: https://securitysectorintegrity.com/publication/building-integrity-reducing-corruption-defence-compendium-best-practices/. [Accessed: 3/09/2020].

Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority [PSIRA]. 2017. Annual Report 2016‒2017. Centurion: PSIRA.

Private Security Regulatory Authority (PSIRA). 2018. Executive Committee. Available from: https://www.psira.co.za/search-joomla/executive-management.html. [Accessed: 10/08/2020].

Private Security Regulatory Authority [PSIRA]. 2019. Annual Report 2018‒2019. Centurion: PSIRA.

Provost, C. 2017. The Guardian: The Industry of Inequality: why the world is obsessed with private security. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/may/12/industry-of-inequality-why-world-is-obsessed-with-private-security. [Accessed: 12/04/2020].

Rossman, G. B. and Rallis, S. F. 2012. Learning in the field: An introduction to qualitative researcch (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Saldana, J. 2015. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers Third Edition. New Jersey: Sage Publications.

Sefalafala, T. and Webster, E. 2013. Working as a Security Guard: the limits of Professionalisation in low Status Occupation. South African Review of Sociology, Vol. 44(2), 76‒97. https://doi.org/10.1080/21528586.2013.802539

Tracey, L. 2011. Implementing the South African Firearms Control: A complete failure or work in progress? Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 2014. Global Report on Trafficking Persons. Available from: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/glotip_2014.html [Accessed: 15/04/2020].

Downloads

Published

2021-10-21

How to Cite

Mbana, L., Mofokeng, J. T., Maluleke, W., & Khosa, D. (2021). Sharpening the Axe: Identifying and Closing Gaps Within the Training Space of the South African Private Security Industry . International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 10, 1406–1414. https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2021.10.161

Issue

Section

Articles

Most read articles by the same author(s)