Four years of inaction on private security bill

THE Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill remains in limbo four years after it was passed by Parliament, with former president Jacob Zuma delaying its signing into law.

The ANC took a resolution at its elective conference in December for the president to immediately assent to the bill.

However, President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday he was looking into the matter.

The bill calls for local companies to get a 51% majority stake from private security firms. But when the bill was passed, some of the stakeholders complained it would kill jobs.

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko said the matter was being attended to.

Parliament passed the bill in March, 2014, after it was tabled by then Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa to protect national security. Since its approval by the national legislature, it has been lying on the president’s desk.

Diko said Ramaphosa was getting advice on the bill.

“When the president came in he requested an audit of all the bills that needed to be assented to. The Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill is one of those bills. He (Ramaphosa) also requested advice on the bill from the State Security Agency, and we are awaiting an opinion on it,” said Diko.

The bill wants to limit the control of private security firms by foreigners. The industry employs more than 500 000 people, which is more than twice the number of police officers employed in the country.

The government has said the private security industry poses a threat to national security. There are more than 9000 private security companies in the country, and the industry generates billions of rand a year.

The official opposition has argued that if the bill was signed into law in its current form, limiting foreign control of private security firms, it would be in violation of the World Trade Organisation’s general agreement on trade in services.

The opposition has said this provision of limiting foreign ownership was unworkable, and the bill needed to be redrafted by Parliament.