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Security trends 2009

South Africa’s security industry will be meeting the challenges of 2009 head-on. They can do that because the importance of training has already been recognised and SASA has fast-tracked training.

SASA president Sibusiso Ncube says, however, the R20,5 million allocated to training by government is not enough and the importance and contribution of the private sector security industry is big enough to warrant more money.

An important meeting will take place early next year between SIA, the Department of Labour and SETA. The shortcomings that exist due to a lack of training will be discussed and Ncube is adamant that the improved training will empower thousands of security guards to be much more effective in the war against crime. “The security industry is unlikely to slow down and should actually stabilise despite the economic slow-down.”

Ncube nevertheless expects the CCTV sector to expand considerably as more and more companies prefer to invest in remote monitoring CCTV than in patrol cars.

Despite all the attention afforded to electronics, the security scene is expected to buzz with developments from all kinds of activities. The market and economy will be closely monitored to establish new trends and meet demand. SASA’s different security company members will concentrate on improving their skills and honing their employees to a much sharper degree of effectiveness.

Apart from the Crime War there is not a single favourite topic under discussion in the security industry and neither will there be much else dominating the attention of users in 2009.

There is now rather a wide combination of many things. That range from effective patrolling and customer support to monitoring by security companies. “These service delivery issues are essential and extremely important for any security company. That is also why SASA encourages the public to insist that their security service provider be a member of SASA – and they are encouraged in turn to improve skills of security members,” says Ncube.

With locksmiths also having been brought under the umbrella of SIA and operating along with SASA, the scene is set for more expansion and bringing more sectors under the SIA umbrella. This development is long overdue and is expected to result in far less friction.

Although the government seems keen on having foreign companies buying into South African security companies or even taking them over, it is not expected to happen soon. The reason is simple – the economy like many others elsewhere in the world is rather unattractive right now.

Even if foreign capital should be invested, the security industry might prove very antagonistic against such a take-over. The root cause of that will be a fear of losing jobs.

On a positive note SASA has seen a groundswell of resistance against crime among the public, residents of all kinds of housing and business. Every month more communities become more involved.

That alone is very encouraging and the efforts of the various anti-crime associations and Business Against Crime (BAC) are bearing fruit.

Ncube says these organisations are addressing these things and SASA is assisting through the local security companies in the various communities.

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