SASA UPDATE

2020 in a nutshell

Tony Botes, National Administrator for the Security Association of South Africa (SASA), wraps up 2020, “an eventful year for South Africa which has also greatly impacted on the country’s private security”.

Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused multiple challenges for all industries, with many employment opportunities being declared redundant and very few, if any, new positions being created. The economy has dipped alarmingly, evidenced by long queues of jobseekers outside the offices of security service providers and reduced consumer demand, which has resulted in industries cutting back or even ceasing production. While the situation is gradually improving, the private security industry cannot afford the mass retrenchments that are taking place.

Violence

There have been numerous attacks on security officers along with a dramatic increase in attacks on CIT (cash-in-transit) vehicles recently. Although these crimes do tend to increase at this time of the year, the current numbers are unprecedented and the loss of lives unacceptable.

National Bargaining Council

The National Bargaining Council for the Private Security Sector (NBCPSS) has, at long last, been established after initial discussions started in the mid-1990s.

The three-yearly wage negotiations, conducted between organised employers (of which SASA is the largest) and organised labour (some 23 trade unions) were probably the most difficult since 2006, during which the “strike of all strikes” cost in excess of 100 lives, all being non-striking security officers, during the more than three months of violent industrial action.

Many of these deaths were caused by throwing security officers off moving trains, whose only “crime” was that they did not want to join the strike, preferring to continue working and supporting their families.

Subsequent investigations revealed that these non-strikers had one thing in common: although the majority were not working or commuting in uniform, the majority were still wearing their security footwear, thus making it easier to identify them from among the other commuters on trains.

The latest negotiations, the first under the auspices of the NBCPSS, started off with totally unrealistic and excessive demands from Labour: “R7 500 per month or death”, in addition to other massive increases. This would have resulted in more than an 80 percent increase in the cost-to-company figures, which would never have been accepted by consumers.

The final collective agreement, concluded on 10 December 2019 but only promulgated on 20 February 2020 and effective from 2 March 2020, resulted in an average 8.75 per cent increase in payroll costs, to which many consumers objected. This led to further job losses and a dramatic, completely unacaceptable increase in non-compliance just to retain clients and jobs. Consumers are going to have to accept that minimum levels of remuneration as well as other employment conditions and benefits are statutory requirements and that pressuring their service providers to “quote below cost” only increases the level of noncompliance and criminal exploitation of security officers. To this end, PSiRA has, in a recent memorandum replicated in the August 2020 issue of Security Focus Africa clearly set out consumer obligations and the penalties to consumers who do not adhere to the basic requirements when appointing a security service provider.

The NBCPSS is slowly but surely gaining traction as the levies start rolling in, but the end result will only become a reality when all security service providers are registered with the Council and the Compliance and Dispute Resolution departments become operational.

PSiRA (Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority)

PSiRA, last year, published a consultation gazette in respect of their proposed annual fees and, as the “per guard” fee payable by employers only reflected an increase of 10 cents, from R2.70 to R2.80 per security officer per month, SASA saw no need to make any comments. However, when they conducted national consultation meetings, they tabled a R1.00 increase, from R2.70 to R2.80, 37 per cent in the current economy, which was subsequently gazetted.

Informal communication with PSiRA was rejected out of hand and SASA and SANSEA (South African National Security Employers’ Association) then decided to take the legal route and had papers drafted to serve on PSiRA. Before such papers were submitted to the High Court, our attorneys sent a courtesy copy to PSiRA and, almost immediately thereafter, were telephonically requested not to lodge the application, as they (PSiRA) had reconsidered the increase, which was later re-gazetted at the originally proposed R2.80.

PSiRA is now again commencing with consultation for their 2021 fees, so security service providers should study the documentation carefully and make input to PSiRA, copied to SASA.

As at 31 October 2020 there were 10 416 registered and active security companies and 556 251 registered and active security officers on the PSiRA database, which was unexpected during this pandemic period. What is very disconcerting is the fact that there are 61 858 registered and active security officers who have not once renewed their old SOB (Security Officers Board) or PSiRA certificates to the new “fraudproof” certificates AND there are 723 security companies that have also never renewed their company certificates to the new format ones.

SASA membership

SASA membership, in all three categories, is growing rapidly and we now have 62 Gold Members, with several applications pending. We estimate that these companies employ more than 140 000 security and support staff, which is a force to be reckoned with.

SASA has also, with its Mentorship Programme, assisted more than 20 start-up companies to register with PSiRA, the PSSPF and the NBCPSS, in addition to their statutory membership of COID (Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases) and SARS (South African Revenue Service) thus enabling us to grant them Gold Membership status.

We are extremely proud of the fact that we have contributed greatly to the compliance levels in the private security industry, but fear that this is not even a drop in the ocean; only the NBCPSS – once fully operational – will be in a position to bring the industry into line and eradicate the unacceptable levels of non-compliance in the sector.

Functions

Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, the industry’s calendar events namely the Bravery Awards and Securex were cancelled, but we trust that 2021 will restore both to our diaries.

Affiliations

In line with our Constitution we are in the process of concluding a Reciprocal Agreement with the Security Association of Namibia and hope to grow this exercise in 2021. `

In closing

The SASA National Executive and Regional Committees wish all readers and members of the security industry a safe and joyous Christmas and a bumper 2021.

For more information about what SASA does and how it can help you and your company, please contact: Tony Botes, SASA National Administrator, at: Tel: 0861 100 680 / 083 650 4981 Email: info@sasecurity.co.za Website: www.sasecurity.co.za