President Zuma must send job-killing Private Security Bill back to Parliament

20 March 2015

Police Minister, Nathi Nhleko, has again come out in support of the xenophobic and job-killing Private Security Industry Amendment (PSIRA) Bill, this time in an address to the Private Security Services Conference yesterday. 

In his address Minister Nhleko stated that the PSIRA Bill is constitutional in its current form, despite severe problems with the legislation that has led to the DA petitioning President Zuma not to sign it and instead send it back to Parliament for revision. 

Minister Nhleko has absolutely no credibility on the constitutionality of anything given his recent conduct; acting in direct contravention of a Constitutional Court order in the Hawks debacle. 

Section 20(2)(c) of the PSIRA Bill states that "a security business may only be registered as a security service provider if at least 51 percent of the ownership and control is exercised by South African citizens." This is at the sole discretion of the Police Minister who "may prescribe a different percentage - it may be 60, 80, 90 or even 10 percent." It is this discretionary clause that the DA has long taken issue with.

This means that the Minister of Police can at any time decide on a whim to expropriate anywhere from 10% to 90% of a company of his choosing.

Minister Nhleko cannot be trusted and left to his own devices with this Bill. Parliament must step in and correct it before a politically expedient Minister is empowered to destroy an industry that employs thousands of South Africans across the country.

There is a reason why this is a R60 billion industry: private security companies are essential in the fight against crime. Private security companies free up capacity for the South African Police Service (SAPS) to focus on areas where violent crime is at its highest, and in communities which cannot afford private security at all. 

If private security firms leave, and they will if this Bill is passed in its current form, thousands of security industry employees are certain to lose their jobs and there will be more demand on an already over-stretched SAPS. In the end it will be the communities with the highest rates of crime that will feel the brunt.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minster of Police, March 20 2015

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