Security Association of South Africa: Leading Responsible Private Security and Compliance in South Africa

ICoCA Observer since August 2024

During a recent visit to South Africa, the ICoCA team met with Louis Mkhethoni, National President of the Security Association of South Africa (SASA), and Tony Botes, National Administrator. As the largest employers’ organisation in South Africa’s private security sector, SASA plays a crucial role in advocating for compliance, ethical standards and industry best practices, including the protection of human rights.

Driving Industry Compliance and Professionalism

Representing South African employers in private security, SASA serves on the management board of both the National Bargaining Council for the Private Security Sector (NBCPSS) and the industry’s provident fund and contributes to the quarterly Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSiRA) National Industry Compliance Forum.

To support industry compliance, SASA provides training for both its members and other security companies, ensuring proper interpretation and implementation of the Main Collective Agreement (MCA), which governs employment relations and ensures fair working conditions within the industry. This enables businesses to remain both competitive and fully compliant with regulations.

In a bid to foster compliance at all and help non-compliant security businesses achieve industry compliance, SASA recently introduced two new membership categories:

• Ordinary Membership: Designed for companies that are not yet fully compliant but require guidance and support to achieve full compliance and qualify for Gold Membership.
• Candidate Membership: Tailored for start-up security firms needing intensive mentorship.

The impact of these new categories has been immediate. “We have already seen significant growth in membership within just two months”, notes Tony Botes. “Moreover, we’ve actively promoted our Gold Membership to both state and private consumers, with great success.”

Championing Human Rights in Private Security Services

SASA has a number of labour relations officials who assist members with issues like unfair dismissals and other labour disputes. It also represents its members at the industry bargaining forum, where it negotiates remuneration, employment conditions and benefits with trade unions.

According to Mr. Botes, a major challenge in the industry is that many security companies do not abide by the bargaining council MCA, instead relying on so-called “disguised employment relationships”, such as co-operatives, independent contractors and/or unregistered learners to fulfil security duties. This not only results in gross underpayment of employees but also negatively impacts their human rights.

Since its inception, SASA has required all members to demonstrate full compliance with national and industry regulations as a condition of membership. This commitment extends to human rights protections, which are now enshrined in SASA’s constitution.

“Our long-term primary goal is the total compliance of all employers within the private security sector in South Africa—an Everest-level challenge”, says Botes.

To support this mission, SASA actively identifies and reports non-compliant security service providers to the relevant authorities for inspection and enforcement actions.

Expanding Influence through Strategic Alliances

Beyond its role within the NBCPSS, SASA has established bilateral agreements with major security service clients, handling their compliance verification to ensure that only fully compliant security providers are engaged, whether or not they are SASA members.

On an international level, SASA has strengthened cooperation with similar associations in Southern Africa, India, Singapore, with Guyana knocking on the front door.

Additionally, discussions are underway with South Africa’s second-largest employers’ organisation regarding a co-operation agreement, which could result in a merger of the two associations in the foreseeable future.

SASA also collaborated with ICoCA and the ICT4Peace Foundation to address human rights risks in security technology. Recent workshops with the University of Pretoria focused on ethical concerns surrounding surveillance tools and data privacy. Insights from these sessions have helped shape a Toolkit on the responsible use of technology by the private security sector.

To learn more about the Security Association of South Africa, visit their website.