EVIDENCE WA KA NGOBENI and IVOR POWELL,
Johannesburg | Friday 11.30am
A BODY of black private security industry employers this week walked out of the statutory body charged with regulating the industry amid allegations of neoptism and corruption within the body.
After a crisis meeting on Wednesday South African Black Security Employers Association (Sabsea) called on Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete to appoint a full commission of inquiry into allegations of neoptism and corruption centred around the secretariat of the Security Officers Board (SOB).
Sabsea — the second-largest employer body in the industry — also indicated that its members will refuse to submit to the discipline of the SOB unless the man at the centre of the storm of allegations against the board, SOB registrar Patrick Ronan, is suspended.
Sabsea’s declaration of outright war comes after the failure of attempts by its representative on the 13-member SOB, Abram Maredi, to address issues raised in recent articles in the Mail & Guardian at a board meeting on Monday.
Last week the M&G revealed that 1997 amendments promulgated by the Ministry of Safety and Security to regulations governing the SOB had been made law without being discussed or canvassed with either members of the board or the industry.
The apparent failure to follow due procedure could render the regulations – which transfer extraordinary powers away from the board into the hands of the registrar – null and void, as well as questioning the legality of the SOB as currently constituted.