Ivor Powell and Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
Bureaucratic smoke and legalistic mirrors have allowed an old-guard clique to maintain control over the multibillion-rand private security industry – despite the government’s appointment of an interim regulatory board to clean up the troublesome and highly militarised sector.
That is the charge being levelled by small employers and operators inside the industry as a major showdown looms between controlling interests within the industry’s regulatory authority, the Security Officers Board (SOB), on one side and, on the other, disgruntled employer associations and company owners who claim they are being driven out of business.
The sleight of hand, the malcontents claim, was effected via amendments to existing regulations made public in a South African Police Service notice published in the Government Gazette of September 26 1997, giving extraordinary powers to the office of the SOB registrar to act on behalf of the SOB – powers that were formerly vested in the board as a whole.
Members of the interim board – the industry’s current regulatory body – claim they are being kept in the dark about board business as a web of secrecy grows around the registrar’s office.
The registrar’s powers now include the registration of security companies and instructors, the granting or withdrawal of registration for security companies as well as the inspection and prosecution of offenders against the regulations governing the security industry. All of these, disgruntled operators claim, have been used by the office of SOB registrar Patrick Ronan to systematically sideline them from the industry.
Curiously the 1997 amendment was passed – after representations by the then serving SOB – while the government was interviewing candidates for an interim board which would be charged with overseeing the transformation of the private security industry while new legislation was being drafted.
But interim board member Cedric de la Harpe claims he has not even been allowed access to board documentation that would allow him to assess the current state of affairs.
“I’ve been requesting this material since the first meeting of the interim board on April 21 this year … material that I need to do the job. First they said they would have to consult. Then, on July 22, after finally getting the chairman of the board to agree to release the documents, my driver was told the documents couldn’t be released after all.
“When I followed up, after a long meeting, the deputy chair told me I would have to provide reasons for wanting to see them … ”
Board deputy chair Professor Hans Visser confirmed he had required reasons, saying De la Harpe, as president of the South Afican Small Employers’ Association, had litigated against the board in the past.
He was not however able to give a reason why, as a member of the interim board, De la Harpe would still have to provide reasons.
Two other interim board members have complained they have also been refused access to documentation.
Meanwhile after raising the issue at an SOB meeting on July 28, De la Harpe became the subject of an extraordinary press statement emanating from the national secretariat of the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) – the only worker union on the interim SOB, although there are eight unions representing workers in the industry.
The union calls for De la Harpe’s immediate dismissal from the board, blaming him for playing “a destructive and negative role in derailing the board from its mandate”.
But there could be other motives. The Mail & Guardian can reveal that Mzwandile Simon, one of the TGWU worker representatives on the board, is also an employer, being the sole director of ISS Security, formerly Inguquko Security Services and before that Atbury Consultants.
The business address given in company registration forms for ISS Security is identical to that of Ronan Smithard and Associates, as well as Ronan and his partner Peter Birch’s various other companies: 14 Bedford View Office Park in Bedfordview. Moreover, ISS Security gives a postal address which belongs to Birch.
Simon refused to comment, referring the M&G to TGWU secretary Randall Howard – who said he was aware of the allegations, but would defend union members in the absence of hard evidence.
Ronan denied any knowledge either of ISS Security operating from his premises or of Simon’s alleged ownership of a security company.
Meanwhile Steve Dube, president of the South African Black Security Employers’ Association, claims that in May Simon, accompanied by Birch and representing themselves as SOB officials, performed a site inspection on a tender at the Pretoria Technikon. Then, with access to rival tender applications, he submitted a tender of his own. The M&G has not been able to ascertain whether the tender was in fact awarded to Simon’s company.
Security operator Andre van der Bijl of Excalibur Security in Durban told the M&G he has approached Public Protector Selby Baqwa for relief in what he describes as a case of the “fox looking after the chickens”.
One of the most highly qualified firearms instructors in South Africa, chair of the South African Institute of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors and an accredited instructor with the American Rifle Association, Van der Bijl had his licence to serve as a firearms instructor withdrawn under mysterious circumstances earlier this year.
After his premises had been inspected and given the thumbs-up as early as 1994, a letter dated February 1 1999 informed him he failed to meet requirements, though he could appeal the matter (with accompanying argumentation and documentation) before February 5 – the day on which he received the notification.
Van der Bijl notes that two of the officers who are charged with accrediting firearms instructors on behalf of the SOB actually carry credentials issued by his Sentinel Firearms Bureau.
Van der Bijl also charges that another of his guard companies, Excalibur Executive Security Protection Services, was given similarly short shrift. After being given a clean bill in an inspection on January 5 1999, Van der Bijl was later that month charged with 92 counts of contravening the Security Officers Act – some of them dating back to the company’s inception in 1994.
When charged, Van der Bijl was tendering for the massive contract to supply protection for the African National Congress leadership in KwaZulu-Natal in the run-up to the June election – a contract he won despite the obstacles in his path.
Van der Bijl was also – controversially – providing security to Inkatha Freedom Party defector Dumisane Khuzwayo.
A security source said action was taken by the SOB against Van der Bijl after the interception of a document in which Van der Bijl outlined a strategy for bringing Umkhonto weSizwe veterans into the security industry after new legislation was passed.
Ronan denied any knowledge of the documents. He added that there were concerns over Van der Bijl’s taxi guard business, but provided no further details.