Private security ‘opens door to crime’: Experts warn about infiltration fears

South Africa's rapidly growing private security sector has raised concerns among experts about the potential infiltration of organized crime. This industry, regulated by the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira), employs over 637,675 security officers and benefits from access to firearms, surveillance infrastructure, intelligence, and connections with businesses, communities, and state institutions. The sheer scale of the sector makes it an attractive target for criminal networks.

Criminologist Prof Kholofelo Rakubu warns that the allure of legitimate operations, such as providing protection, access control, surveillance, transportation, and information, makes the private security industry a suitable cover for unlawful activities. She notes that the combination of authority, information, and access can be valuable to organized crime networks, enabling them to conceal their activities under the guise of a licensed corporate identity.

Potential warning signs of infiltrated security companies include unexplained ownership changes, directors with little genuine control, unexplained wealth, unusual financial transactions, frequent corporate restructuring, ties to organized crime figures, irregular firearm records, and employees linked to violent offenses. While Psira has implemented registration requirements and restrictions, Rakubu argues that more robust regulation is needed, including risk-based vetting that examines beneficial ownership, criminal intelligence, business associations, financial red flags, and regulatory history.

The problem of infiltrated security companies is further exacerbated by the sheer size of the industry, which Psira struggles to monitor effectively through registration and periodic inspections alone. Firearms compliance is an example of the regulatory challenge, with Psira recording 1,630 instances in 2024-25 of businesses using firearms that were not compliant with regulatory requirements.

Rakubu emphasizes that criminality has no place in the private security industry, and that meaningful information sharing between various regulatory bodies is necessary to address this issue effectively.