Eric Naki in East London
A SECURITY firm recently launched by a former Umkhonto weSizwe cadre in crime-torn Mdantsane is believed to be the first registered black-owned security company in the country.
Sibuyile Security Services was started by Sam “Juba” Mkani (41), a former MK political commissar and chief political adviser at the ANC mission in East Africa. He studied international relations and diplomacy at the Centre for Foreign Relations in Dar Es Salaam and attended the Diplomatic Academy of London. In 1977 he went into exile and returned to South Africa in 1992. Mkani has since been active in South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) activities in East London and was nominated by the organisation to sit on the greater East London Transitional Local Council.
Mkani employs 120 former MK members, former self-defence unit members and ANC marshals and is considering recruiting former Apla members. He said the MK members were those who had either been refused entry into the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) or who had been discharged from integration camps for going Awol.
“This is not a ‘fly-by-night’ company. We want to provide a service that is efficient and people-driven to ensure security,” said Mkani. “We are one of the few armed security companies in this area. We are able to trace culprits to where they stay. That is our advantage of being based in the community.
“By starting this company we are contributing to the RDP. Despite the fact that this is black economic empowerment, we have also given jobs to youths who were unemployed and roaming the streets. At the same time we are fighting crime plaguing this township.”
Sibuyile’s current clients are shebeens, shopping centres, the Mdantsane Mall and various Ciskei factories. Mkani hopes to expand services to the East London central business districts and said the company had recently started operating in Johannesburg. He also plans to negotiate with taxi operators to provide security services at taxi ranks.
The company began operating in November last year in a disused factory building. Mkani said he decided to start the company when financial problems forced the closure of a Sanco-initiated project to guard clinics and hospitals.
He said guards in the Sanco project had not been trained in the use of arms, which made hospital and clinic staff insecure. Yet hundreds of ANC marshals in the Eastern Cape region were jobless, because the “freedom” after the elections had seen few political events which required their marshalling services. Some marshals had expected the ANC to provide them with work as police reservists or in the people’s militia and the SANDF community reserves.
“It was then that I felt something needed to be done to train these marshals and certify them as fully-fledged security officers,” Mkani said.
The youths receive two weeks’ training in the handling of firearms, dispute resolution, court presentation, public relations and arrest. Former MK members with specialised skills are among the new security guards. — Ecna