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From the Editor's desk: Security goes mainstream

AndrewSeldon, Editor

Welcome to SMART Security’s SMART Mining & Industrial Security Handbook 2026. While the world is focused on cybersecurity and AI, physical security has become a board-level concern across South Africa’s mining and industrial economy, as well as for companies globally. Our first article, based on the World Security Report 2026, bears this out.

In sectors where production depends on fixed assets, perimeter integrity, energy continuity, transport reliability and workforce safety, the security function is no longer limited to guarding gates and patrolling fences. It now sits at the centre of operational resilience.

For mining houses, smelters, factories, warehouses, logistics hubs and processing plants, the challenge is not only to prevent theft or trespass, but also to protect people, infrastructure and output against increasingly organised, opportunistic and, in this country, often violent criminal activity.

National statistics demonstrate why these sectors require a strong security posture. More recent SAPS reporting for the third quarter of 2024/2025 showed some improvement in overall property-related crime, but organised criminality, extortion, kidnapping, infrastructure theft and commercial crime remain major policing priorities (so we’re told).

For operators in mining and industry, this means security planning must account not only for common criminality, but also for syndicates that exploit weak access controls, insider information, poor surveillance coverage and vulnerable transport routes.

The mining sector faces a particularly acute physical security burden. Illegal mining remains one of the most pressing threats, especially around disused shafts, tailings facilities, access tunnels and remote production areas. In early 2025, the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources said illegal mining cost the South African economy about R60 billion in 2024.

The industrial market faces a parallel set of threats. Research published in late 2023 found that Eskom, PRASA and Transnet together experienced almost 11 000 copper-theft-related incidents per year between 2018 and 2022, while Transnet alone has reported extensive operational losses linked to cable theft and vandalism.

Theft of copper cable, diesel, explosives, tools and high-value metals remains a persistent problem, compounded by armed syndicates, collusion by insiders or service providers, and delayed law-enforcement responses. These conditions continue to place significant pressure on security teams and operations across South Africa.

Against this backdrop, physical security requirements are clear. We cannot ignore the potential of AI and the latest technology. However, as any security operator will tell you, technology is only one component of security and risk management. Integrating security, risk and operations is the only way to gain a firmer grip on the criminality affecting South Africa.

Then there is cybersecurity, which is also a critical threat to these industries, and one we touch on in this issue.

For South African mining and industrial organisations, the question is no longer whether physical security investment is necessary, but how to align that investment with the realities of a high-risk operating environment. Effective security must be intelligence-led, making AI an asset by integrating security, risk, operational, and IoT data and systems. (Be on the lookout for a podcast coming soon dealing with this exact issue.)

As the cliché from an old television series had it: ‘Be safe out there.’

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