Govt finds security bosses ‘exploit’ their guards daily

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Govt finds security bosses 'exploit' their guards daily
EXPLOITED: A department of labour report has found that many private security companies are not compliant with labour laws. PICTURE BY Twitter.

The South African department of labour has found how many security bosses in the country do not follow employment laws, thus subjecting their guards to exploitation.


The department found a lot of acts of abuse to guards in the security sector, including not giving them enough wages and not declaring them to the unemployment insurance fund (UIF).

This is in violation of the South African laws governing labour rights, said departmental deputy director for advocacy Zoleka Ntshoza. The department conducted inspections in the workplace to find out how guards were treated by their employees and released the results last week in Mbombela, Mpumalanga.

Guards were being hired without proper working agreements and issues of decent work that relates to some guards not getting payslips and bonuses. 

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“We intend to make follow-up inspections soon,” said Ntshoza.

She said they have issued a number of compliance orders to owners of the security companies that they inspected. 

“We have given the employers 14 days to comply. In the case of failure to comply, we will issue confirmatory notices, and after that we are no longer going to be engaging with the employers. We will take the employers directly to the CCMA,” she said.

Ntshoza was unveiling the outcome of the inspections during the Private Security Seminar organised by the department of employment and labour’s Inspections and Enforcement Services (IES).

The release of the outcome of the inspection took place at the Ehlanzeni municipal offices in Mbombela on 29 August 2019.

The inspection took place from 19 to 23 August 2019, with a theme: “Paying the National Minimum Wage is the right thing to do” and was organised by government.

Govt finds security bosses 'exploit' their guards daily

The labour department’s national advocacy campaign works to “build working relations with all relevant stakeholders in the labour market to promote sound labour relations and increase level of compliance.

Ntshoza said they have identified the private security sector following a number of complaints lodged at labour centre offices. 

She said one of the outcomes of the inspection was the uncovering of some R432 187 that was owed to workers due to underpayment.

She said moving forward they will conduct “continuous advocacy sessions” with the private security industry. 

Some of the initiatives will include embarking on outreach programmes, she said, and that will make sure everybody complies with labour laws.

(edited by MLM) 

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