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Private security watchdog tightens the industry leash - deploys debt collectors, focuses on criminal vetting

Private security watchdog tightens the industry leash - deploys debt collectors, focuses on criminal vetting
Caryn Dolley
By Caryn Dolley
12 Mar 2025
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Suspected criminal elements have before been linked to private security in SA. Now the watchdog overseeing the industry has explained to Parliament how it is cracking down on the sector to try to clean it up.

Debt collection and private security are themes that have before cropped up in criminal issues, casting some negative light on the two sectors.

But now Parliament has heard the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira) has used debt collectors to recover money that service providers owe it.

Those registered with the watchdog are meant to pay annual fees that are based on factors including the size of a business.

Read more: Mark Lifman’s murder underscores the ‘grip’ of organised crime on police and private security

Daily Maverick has previously reported that the private security sector is booming and that Psira admitted it had “a lack of sufficient capacity” and that its funding model was not working to its advantage.

Psira’s 2024/2025 performance plan said there were more than 2.8 million security officers registered in South Africa.

Of those, more than a half a million – 577,444 – were actively employed.

Debt collectors hired


During a police committee meeting in Parliament on Wednesday, 12 March 2025, a Psira presentation provided some more insight into its funding situation.

It showed that as part of financial risk management plans, it had “hired a panel of debt collectors to recover old debt over a three-year period”.

Annual fee payments were also tracked regularly and Psira was using emails, instead of only relying on the postal mail system, to send written collection notifications.

Read more: ‘Private militias’ warning after Cape Town taxi shootout

The presentation showed that suspended companies with outstanding fees that exceeded 90 days were deregistered.

A list of these companies was published on the Psira website.

During the meeting on Wednesday, the DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard asked if Psira had “at last” fixed its (presumably fee) collection system “because that’s been the major issue you’ve fought with all these years.”

In response, it was heard its collection rate stood at 85%.

No other figures were provided.

Payment struggles tied to tenders


Psira head Manabela Sam Chauke added that it was looking at ways to ensure freshly registered companies could pay.

“We are currently reviewing our policy with regard to registration,” he said.

“We have noticed indeed that most of the companies that are struggling to pay us are those companies who register with the hope of getting tenders.”

When they did not get the tenders, the companies struggled to pay Psira.

Chauke said it was trying to come up with guarantees to work around this.

Costly vetting


He also focused on the vetting of service providers.

Chauke said this was done regularly, but that it also depended on circumstances.

“Currently, when we have matters that have been reported to us or people who have been arrested and people who have gotten in trouble with the law … we do conduct those vettings,” he explained.

“We do not conduct live vetting off our database with the criminal record centre as yet.”

Psira was, however, in contact with the South African Police Service.

Chauke said if everyone on its system were vetted, it “would be a very costly exercise”.

Psira was paying more than R10-million to check for criminal records annually, especially against those registering with it for the first time.

Chauke said it was looking at more cost-effective ways to do regular checks.

Murders and criminal cases


The issue of private security has before cropped up in criminal matters.

There are suspicions that criminals infiltrated the sector, in some cases, so that they could legally access firearms through security companies.

The firearms could then be used for purposes other than providing security.

Murder accused Mark Lifman, who was killed in the Western Cape town of George on 3 November last year, had been linked to private security.

Read more: South Africa’s gang capital and its murderous matrix

The two suspects arrested in connection with his killing, Johannes Jacobs and Gert Bezuidenhout, provided services to a company, Professional Protection Alternatives, better known as PPA Security or PPA.

Meanwhile, another crime accused who was viewed as one of Lifman’s rivals, Nafiz Modack, also had links to private security activities.

Modack is on trial in the Western Cape Division of the High Court for crimes including the September 2020 assassination of policeman Charl Kinnear – the detective was fatally shot outside his Bishop Lavis home in Cape Town.

Among those also accused in the case with him is debt collector Zane Killian. DM

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