BLOG

Several news articles published this past week interviewed managers of and security officers themselves and quoted the very reputable Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in saying that the SA Police Service is unable to address the safety and security needs of its citizens. It is private security companies that have stepped into that gap, trying to breach it. As with education, those families that can afford to, pay for both private education and private security; two things that, in most other countries, are provided by the State.

The South African Police Service published the latest crime stats for Q1, 2021.

The immediate question that springs to mind is, “How much under-reporting is really happening?” This is because every conceivable platform used by the ‘common man’ to gauge crime trends, such as security WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram groups established by industry role-players, crime prevention forums, residential areas and their private security vendors; clearly indicate a significant uptick in crime. Both in frequency and brazenness, if that is even a word.

Given our recent introduction of a range of new, specialised services, and ever since our establishment in 1999, NSA Global Security Consultants has developed an impressive track record of successful international security deployments worldwide. We are now proud to introduce our new South African divisions that bring world-class security solutions to the South Africa security context.

Having watched this video many times on all kinds of platforms over the past week or so and read hundreds of comments, some positive, some funny and some negative, we are motivated to note down some general observations and thoughts:

The SA Police Force as it was known then, established “Truck Hijacking Units” comprised of experienced detectives in the early 1990s, to deal with what was seen as an increasing scourge, and one following on from a rise in vehicle hijackings; something that we still know today.

The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, had it right when he said, “Change is the only constant.” And most new year messages contained wording to the effect that, “2021 can only be better, let’s just forget 2020.” I think Heraclitus would’ve been amazed if he were able to look around today. Here’s a small sample of today’s headlines from the world of news, economics and of course, security:

As South Africa enters Level 2 of our COVID-19 lockdown, following President Ramaphosa’s Sunday evening announcement to the nation, we look back and answer some of the questions that we were almost too frightened to ask in Level 5, but that we knew were all too predictable.

With a multitude of Fortune 500 companies having large-scale operations in South Africa and Africa, and a substantial number of expatriate personnel working for these companies across the African continent; the security departments of many of these companies have no doubt been sent into a bit of a tail-spin since the majority of the world enacted strict travel restrictions in place to curb the rampant spread of COVID-19.

One of the aspects of the decision by President Ramaphosa to lockdown South Africa that has serious security implications for businesses around the country is the fact that their physical premises will be completely unoccupied for the 21-day duration. This obviously excludes those businesses which are deemed to be “essential service providers”.

A recent Asher and Lyric survey gathered data from a variety of trusted international sources to create a ‘Women’s Danger Index’, ranking the countries’ safety for solo female travellers.