Due to the high crime rate in South Africa, the need for security companies has become clearly evident. There is no doubt that the high crime rate and the large amount of security companies around the country go hand in hand simply because as crime increases more counter measures that protects against crime are required. Security companies are thus seen as the perfect counter measure.
As a result of violent uprising against the apartheid government violence, in a sense, has become somewhat of a norm in the South African environment. Children growing up in these circumstances, mostly in low income communities, become adults who turn to crime as means to get finances and often become violent criminals as a result of their upbringing.
This is evident when one considers a survey ran by the United Nations Office on Drugs between 1998 and 2000 which rated South Africa second in terms of assault and murder and first for rape out of 60 countries. At one stage 50 murders per day was recorded in South Africa.
This necessitated the need for security companies as the public became disillusioned with the service the South African Police Services provided. The consensus was that people would rather pay private security companies to ensure that their property and their lives are protected. This point is accentuated when one considers reports of police’s slow response times when crimes are reported against the promise of security companies to respond to reported crimes in 5 minutes or less.
South Africa has been credited with having one of the biggest private security systems in the world. This makes sense considering the reported high crime rates. Services security companies offer include Residential security; Commercial security; Retail security and security with regards to financing and banking. Security companies are required to stay up to date with trends in the criminal world at all times in order to increase their effectiveness. If a particular neighbourhood is targeted while the owners are at work, patrol of that area needs to be increased.
