Letter from Johannesburg

High walls topped with electric fences; houses barely visible from the outside; and men equipped with bulletproof vests, handguns on their belts or assault rifles slung over their shoulders. They patrol the streets in pick-ups bearing the logo of a private security company. This is the concept of a "quiet" neighborhood in South Africa, a country where insecurity is part of daily life. Now, new regulations could change that dynamic.

On March 28, the Minister of Police proposed new regulations to more strictly govern the use of firearms by private security companies, as the country has nearly three and a half times more security agents than police officers. The legislation notably plans to ban firearms in shopping centers, schools, churches and taxi stations. It will also restrict the use of semi-automatic rifles to the protection of cash-in-transit vehicles, "critical" infrastructure and anti-poaching efforts, while additionally imposing numerous conditions on carrying handguns.

According to security companies, this is absurd. They claim that the complexity of the proposed measures amounts to taking "firearms away from private security," according to Steve Conradie, spokesperson for a coalition of sector representatives opposed to the legislation. Conradie explained that private security agents "are normally the first responders at an event, before even the police arrive. I mean it is not new news to say that the police will not respond immediately (...) and without firearms, how do they protect themselves or the client or the premise or the property?"

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