Let’s start debate now

THIS week State Security Minister David Mahlobo had much to say when he addressed Parliament during the debate on his budget vote, chief among them his allegations of opposition parties and unnamed NGOs working with foreign governments to destabilise our own.

It’s a dangerous tactic to level allegations of this magnitude without offering any shred of tangible evidence, because it diminishes the stature of the person uttering them, often to a point where nothing they say afterwards is taken seriously.

But Mahlobo said something else this week that does need to be debated – his concerns around the private security industry. There will be furious discussions about this, particularly the possible promulgation of the Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill and the power for the minister to expropriate foreign security companies and limit foreign ownership to 49% of local companies.

The security industry is massive in this country, indeed, the number of security guards, many armed with civilian modified assault rifles, dwarfs our own defence and police forces – 1,87 million registered security officers against 153 000 sworn in police officers and 89 000 active defence force personnel.

It’s a damning indictment on both the government’s ability to safeguard its citizens and the middle class’s perspective on the efficacy of law enforcement in all its various guises. But it’s also a national security crisis. We are outnumbered by private armies, many of whom are foreign staffed and foreign owned who could potentially overthrow the government. Whether they would or not is moot, the fact is we are sitting on a timebomb that needs to be defused. Let’s have that debate.