Evidence wa ka Ngobeni
Mapogo a Matamaga, the vigilante organisation that has attracted 40 000 members for its practice of sjamboking suspected criminals, has started a professional security firm in a bid to go mainstream.
Unlike the main organisation, Mapogo a Matamaga Security Services, which plans to expand its area of operation from the Northern Province, does not sjambok suspects. The company boasts armed-response vehicles sporting the head of a tiger and Mapogo’s motto: ”Community and Business Shield”.
According to Mapogo a Matamaga leader Monhle Magolego, the more respectable service has picked up at least 30 clients.
The company, officially launched last December, has been registered with the Security Officers’ Board, a statutory body that regulates the country’s security industry.
Magolego said the firm operates ”like any other security company. Security guards arrest suspected criminals and hand them over to the police” – a more attractive option for criminals used to being viciously flogged.
Magolego is, however, coy about how much he charges for the security company’s services – membership of Mapogo proper ranges from R100 to R10 000 a year, depending on whether clients are private individuals or businesses.
The new security company offers bodyguards, security to banks, big industries and residential areas.
Clients are encouraged to buy Mapogo signs (R50 each) and stickers (R20), all of which are adorned with the head of a tiger – signs that usually signify membership of the main, sjambok-wielding organisation.
They can also buy Mapogo T-shirts, some of them with a picture of Magolego, who is also the founder of the vigilante group.
Magolego says the company already employs more than 50 security guards, who are provided with a blue uniform decorated by Mapogo’s logo and the head of tiger.
Unlike other security companies, which use two-way radios to communicate, Mapogo security guards use the latest cellphones to interact.
And the guards, all of whom are recruited from the main organisation, have to swap their sjamboks for firearms.