Private security guards will not be ”taken over” by police but the relationship between the state and the private-industry security apparatus is set to become much closer, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference on work done by the government’s justice, crime-prevention and security cluster departments, Nqakula said various areas of cooperation have already been identified.
”We need to introduce closer coordination. There are a number of things that we can do; we are having discussions with them, but those discussions are in the early stage,” he said.
Police training for security guards, intelligence sharing and joint response to crime scenes are already on the cards.
Nqakula said police are installing equipment in their own vehicles to monitor the vehicles from radio-control centres and are hoping the private industry will follow suit.
He said this will allow for faster reaction to crime scenes.
”We’ll then be able to dispatch any vehicle to the crime scene, whether it be a police or a private security industry vehicle,” he said.
Police have already offered to train security guards who are responsible for ferrying cash around the country, but Nqakula said other training is also on the cards.
”We must have a system because they are doing crime prevention where they have a minimum basic training course in order for them to deal with first signs that crime may happen,” he said.
A detailed strategy on the ”upgraded” cooperation is being thrashed out but there is no timeline yet. — Sapa