There are more than 2.7 million registered private security officers in South Africa amid fewer than the nation’s 150,000 police officers.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Thamsanqa Mothobi was going about his life in Johannesburg when he was carjacked and taken to an informal settlement where robbers accessed his mobile banking apps.
“They had guns and demanded the PIN codes for my apps. They increased the withdrawal limits in my accounts and emptied them. I was only released in the early hours of the morning,” the father of three said, adding that his one comfort was that he was not killed.
It’s an all-too-common story in South Africa, a country that in the past year has seen an average of 75 killings and 400 robberies with aggravating circumstances every day, according to official statistics. While it may be
Even those who are lucky enough to have private protection can’t always be sure of safety.
In November, a South African government minister and her bodyguards were held up at gunpoint on a highway and robbed of money and their cellphones. The two bodyguards were made to lie on the ground while the robbers ransacked their vehicle and stole their police-issued guns.
It was a reminder that as long as violence is so prevalent in South Africa, everyone is in danger.
Thomas, like many, ties the high levels of violent crime in South Africa to anger over the country’s deep problems of poverty.
“We have seen this anger playing out in violent acts,” Thomas said. “So, what should be a normal robbery where someone gets pointed (at) with a firearm and their belongings are taken … becomes an opportunity for the robber to vent frustration and anger on that innocent victim.”
Violent crime in South Africa has spiked over the past decade after a period when it decreased substantially. There were 27,494 killings in South Africa in the year to February 2023, compared with 16,213 in 2012-2013. South Africa’s homicide rate in 2022-2023 was 45 per 100,000 people, compared with a rate of 6.3 in the United States and around 1 in most European countries.
The police say 10,000 new police officers are going into service from the start of 2024, in an effort to reverse the trend.
“This is more boots on the ground, we’ll have more members on the ground who will be able to reach more communities and more delivery of services,” National Police Commissioner Gen. Fannie Masemola said during a graduation parade in December for some of the new officers.
In an indication that police are overwhelmed, local government authorities in the Gauteng province that includes Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, have recently introduced their own crime wardens to help with law enforcement. The uniformed but unarmed wardens provide support to police operations, though they have faced questions over their legal status.
Thomas said that crime “can thrive in an environment where there is a disorganized police force.”
“We don’t have a disorganized police force because they set out to be disorganized,” he said. “It is simply because they don’t have sufficient resources, they don’t have sufficient capacity.”
