Security Focus Africa November 2021 Vol 39 No 11

www.securityfocusafrica.com | Vol 39 No 11 NOVEMBER 2021 The official industry journal for professional risk practitioners: security, safety, health, environment and quality assurance

Are South Africa’s security officers properly trained?

SASA’S INTERNATIONAL COVID-19 INITIATIVE – UPDATE

Unemployment Insurance Fund: letters of good standing frustration mounts

News snippets from around the world The last word: Omicron, sabotage and 2021 impacted

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securityfocusafrica.com Security Focus Africa has been marketing suppliers to buyers in Africa since 1980, and is the official industry journal of the Security Association of South Africa. Our readers form the core of Southern Africa’s buyers and decision-makers in the security products and services industry.

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CONTENTS www.securityfocusafrica.com

VOL 39 NO 11 NOVEMBER 2021

| Vol 39 No 11 NOVEMBER 2021 nt and quality assurance

ers: security, safety, health, environme

professional risk practition The official industry journal for

Are South Africa’s security officers properly trained?

SASA’S INTERNATIONAL COVID-19 INITIATIVE – UPDATE

Unemployment Insurance Fund: letters of good standing frustration mounts

12 COVER STORY TRAINING 12 Are South Africa’s security officers properly trained

News snippets from around the world and 2021 impacted The last word: Omicron, sabotage

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SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

considering the escalation in crime?

16 The top ICT skills that will take your career to the next level.

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securityfocusafrica.com

Official Journal of the Security Association of South Africa

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Published by Contact Publications (Pty) Ltd (Reg No. 1981/011920/07)

Vol 39 No 11

TEL: (031) 764 6977 FAX: 086 762 1867 MANAGING DIRECTOR: Malcolm King

REGULARS EDITOR’S COMMENT 4 Kidnapping and avoidance, is

Eskom being sabotaged and happy 69th birthday, President Ramaphosa!

ASSOCIATION NEWS 6 Update from SASA. NEWS IN BRIEF 8 News snippets from around the world.

INDUSTRY OPINION 11 Better than all flash — solid state arrays outperform AFA on all fronts.

INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES 18 The African Union should up its

engagements as the UN Security Council takes the lead on maritime security debates.

REPORT BACK 20 Murder, rape and assault all up

according to latest police crime statistics — “South Africa is a VERY violent country,” says Police Minister General Bheki Cele.

CASE STUDY 22 BidAir Cargo revolutionises

disaster recovery strategy with data backup system from DMP South Africa.

malcolm@contactpub.co.za

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE 23 AI will reduce SA’s crime stats as early as 2023.

SPECIAL FEATURE 24 For the sake of our children

and youth: Let us build safer and more harmonious postCovid-19 societies.

PERSONALITY PROFILE 26 FW de Klerk.

SECURITY IN ACTION 28 Global trade body warns again over surge in fake Covid cards.

CYBER SECURITY 29 How attackers ramp up the

pressure to pay.

30 Adapting African cities for a better, safer life.

32 Online payment fraud increases by 208% amid the Black Friday season.

PRODUCT SHOWCASE 33 Jet Demolition offers a turnkey service for the mining industry.

33 ADVERTISERS INDEX THE LAST WORD 34 Omicron, sabotage and 2021

EDITOR: Ingrid Olivier ingrid@securityfocusafrica.com

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Vincent Goode vincent@contactpub.co.za

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Jackie Goosen jackie@contactpub.co.za

POSTAL ADDRESS: PO Box 414, Kloof 3640, South Africa

PUBLICATION DETAILS: Security Focus Africa has 12 issues a year and is published monthly, with the annual Buyers’ Guide in December. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, we will only be publishing digitally, until further notice.

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Editorial contributions are welcome.

For details please email editorial@securityfocusafrica.co.za.

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: Malcolm King Email: malcolm@contactpub.co.za

impacted.

Security Focus Africa

36 DIRECTORY

is a member of

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

Kidnapping and avoidance, is Eskom being sabotaged and happy 69th birthday, President Ramaphosa!

Kidnapped by armed gunmen on their way to school a few weeks ago, the four Moti brothers were released unharmed on Thursday 19 November, a day prior to the release of South Africa’s latest police crime statistics.

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he correlation between the two events is significant in that kidnapping in the country increased by more than 28 percent during the period July to September 2021. This translates to 2,000 reported kidnappings in just three months.

People are kidnapped for many reasons: during the course of hijackings and armed robberies, to give criminals more time to escape and/or bargaining collateral; human trafficking, domesticrelated reasons and for ransom, among others. And while the Moti family and the police remain mum about a ransom having been paid, talk on the street is that the boys’ release came on the back of a R50 million dead-drop ransom. I hope that the details remain undisclosed, for obvious reasons, not least of all being

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to deter copycat criminals. Regarded as a relatively low-risk, high-return crime, kidnapping – to quote Carte Blanche news anchor Derek Watts – is a “heartless act that leaves a family traumatised, helpless and confused.”

How I wish that the pupil kidnapped outside her school in Mayfair, Johannesburg on 17 November is also safely returned to her family, along with the thousands of other victims of this despicable crime. According to the Daily Maverick, 6,632 people were kidnapped in South Africa during the year 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, ‘most of which certainly didn’t make headlines’.

Kidnapping occurs throughout the world, with high-risk countries including Nigeria, Haiti, Colombia, sub-Saharan Africa – and yes, South Africa too.

In the USA a few days ago, a teenage

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North Carolina girl was rescued from the clutches of her 61-year-old kidnapper, thanks to TikTok and an alert driver.

According to Global News, she ‘used the hand signal, originally meant as a nonverbal cue to help victims of domestic abuse, to signal distress to a passing motorist’. We need to up the game when it comes to protecting our children, not least of all by teaching them about this signal (my 24-year-old son, who’s no stranger to the world’s social media platforms, didn’t know about either the signal or the story — when I told him, he got goosebumps.)

The Hiscox Global Insight begins with a disturbing introduction: “We’ve dealt with a variety of different types of kidnappings. Some are over very quickly: express kidnappings, where someone is grabbed off the street, taken to an ATM

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

and forced to withdraw money before being released. Others are hoaxes: virtual kidnappings where a person receives a call or a text, supposedly from a family member, and is tricked into paying a ransom, only to discover later that the ‘victim’ had never been taken in the first place. But many that we’ve dealt with have been classic kidnappings, in which someone is seized at gunpoint and held against their will by an organised gang who have targeted the person and studied their habits. The kidnappers’ demands are backed by a very real threat to the victim’s life unless the ransom is paid, and delicate negotiations can last days, weeks, months or even years, before a resolution is reached in which the victim is released.”

It then lists a number of ways to reduce the risk of kidnapping, which include: • Keeping a low profile, physically and online • If you drive an expensive car, wear valuable jewellery and post pictures of your overseas holidays, you’re inviting close scrutiny from criminals looking for high-value victims.

• Change your routine – often. kidnappers and other criminals watch for routine, so don’t play into their hands by going to school and work on the same roads at the same time every day. Keep changing your routine and your habits, and avoid high-risk areas wherever possible, even if it takes

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longer to get to your destination.

• Stay alert. Hiscox says most kidnappings occur in high-risk areas, when targets are on the move. Keep a close eye on your surroundings and who’s behind and in front of you, don’t talk on your cell phone and be ready to take evasive action if you feel you’re being followed or in danger. It’s also a good idea to tell someone you trust about where you’re going and further, to avoid driving alone, especially at night.

• Be prepared. “Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst,” recommends Hiscox. If you are apprehended, don’t resist. Do what the kidnappers tell you to do, because real life is very different from the movies. (Credit due to “Hiscox London Market, the insurer of choice for the world’s leading companies”).

Is Eskom being deliberately sabotaged?

According to Business Tech, “Independent analysts have backed Eskom Chief Executive André de Ruyter’s claims of sabotage at the embattled power utility, with multiple incidents of malicious damage seen across the group’s operations.”

De Ruyter, who left Nampak to take over the reins of the deeply troubled stateowned power entity in January 2020, addressed the media on 19 November,

following yet another round of loadshedding throughout South Africa.

“For the first time, Eskom has pinned the blame of load-shedding on sabotage — the latest at Lethabo Power Station in the Free State,” wrote Ferial Haffajee in her article “André de Ruyter: Deliberate acts of sabotage are causing power cuts” in the Daily Maverick. We’ll keep our readers updated in future issues of Security Focus Africa.

“NO!” to a fourth wave Having recently passed one grim Covid-19 milestone: 600 days in various stages of lockdown, South Africa is heading for another frightening milestone: as of 24 November 2021, more than 89,600 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded. I’m not getting into any arguments about vaccinating here (for the record, I’ve had my two Pfizer jabs) but I am appealing to you and those you love to maintain social distancing, sanitise, wash your hands regularly and wear medical grade masks.

The Festive Season is almost here and with it the potential to be a super-spreader.

Please be mindful of everyone around you and do the right thing.

Lastly, a happy 69th birthday, President Cyril Ramaphosa!

Stay safe!

Ingrid Olivier, Editor ingridolivier@idotwrite.co.za

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

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ASSOCIATION NEWS

Update from SASA “Just as we thought we were seeing the light at the end of the Covid-19 and loadshedding tunnels, Eskom switched the power off again and Omicron was identified.”

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From the desk of Tony Botes, SASA National Administrator.

nternational Covid-19 initiative SASA, in partnership with ISIO (International Security Industry Organization), have teamed up to provide our respective governments with a plan to combat the pandemic. CAPSI (Central Association of Private Security Industry of India) has had great success in their country so far, whereas we’re still struggling to make contact with the correct people in South Africa’s government, who are supposed to be leading from the front.

Their leadership is critical when it comes to rolling this initiative out to the private security sector and consumers.

We all have to work together to minimise the dramatically increasing rate of new infections and, to this end, we released a media release urging people to plan for the worst ie Omega. The private security industry is the largest force in the country and probably the world: bigger than any police, military, or navy forces. It has been monitoring the Covid-19 threat constantly and from the outset.

The recent biological threat security investigation now dictates that the Omega’s status must be enforced based on the monitoring of the viral pattern formation, taking into consideration the human condition and crime-related issues relative to the threat. Within two days of the status being called for, the new variant was identified by South Africa, and within hours some countries banned flight travel to and from our country — even before the World Health Organisation (WHO) named the variant Omicron.

It appears that the fourth wave of the Covid-19

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pandemic is upon us and, although no additional restrictions have been imposed (yet), we can expect more drastic measures within the next few weeks or so – including government imposing mandatory vaccinations – depending on the rate of new infections.

We have to hope that our efforts will reach the right ears sooner rather than later, when they realise that the private security industry is a major role player in the battle against the pandemic, through significantly upgraded training and awareness, and the enforcement of Coronavirus precautions.

It is the security industry that is implementing the health protocols on the ground: taking temperatures, managing movement, and enforcing sanitising. They are also dealing with pandemicrelated crime: the officers on the ground have to identify new and evolving crime, copycat and habitual crime, and violent and aggressive behaviour. Furthermore, they have to protect their own companies and consumers’ premises, staff, and visitors.

SASA totally supports the private security industry taking the lead in the battle against the pandemic, especially in light of the newly identified Omicron variant, and is calling on the Ministries of Health and Police to join and support this very positive initiative.

SASA Annual General Meeting SASA held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) earlier this month — since our National Executive Committee serves a two-year term, there was no

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

need for elections. The Association once again received an unqualified audit and is in a sound financial position, but there is no place for complacency.

National Bargaining Council for the Private Security Sector (NBCPSS) update Although less than two years old and with only a fraction of the more than 10,500 registered security service providers in South Africa having registered with the Bargaining Council, and even fewer making their statutory monthly contributions, the Council has nevertheless performed well, especially over the past few months: • It now has permanent offices in Midrand, which are sparsely staffed but growing steadily; • It has appointed additional agents (inspectors) and will continue to do so as and when the financial situation permits; • It has established a small office on the East Rand for agents operating in that area; • In early 2022, the Council will be given some space at the SASA offices on the West Rand, as a springboard for their operations in that area.

• Other offices throughout the country will be opened as soon as the necessary resources become available.

• The NBCPSS has now also been accredited by the CCMA (Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration) to handle labour-related disputes such as unfair labour practices and unfair dismissals — and it has already heard a number of cases.

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ASSOCIATION NEWS

• To date, it has issued more than 580 compliance orders and held more than 180 compliance arbitrations, with the vast majority of outcomes against the relevant employers.

There are also a significant number of Warrants of Attachment at the relevant offices of the Sheriff, awaiting service.

Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) — the latest The PSIRA Amendment Gazette is having a serious impact on a number of security service providers: • Security businesses now have to be at least 51 percent South African-owned, so foreign-owned companies will have to find local investors in order to comply with the new legislation.

• Another challenge for companies is the restriction on the branding or colours of uniforms ‘in any shade of blue’ or similar to those used by the various arms of the SANDF (South African National Defence Force), SAPS (South African Police Service), Correctional Services, Municipal Police and any other law enforcement agency that might be established in the future. All types or colours of camouflage are also prohibited, except for those performing anti-poaching services.

With an estimated 70 to 80 percent of the country’s private security entities using blue as their basic uniform colour and a significant number using other now-restricted colours, there are very few alternative practical colours to choose from, but the legislation is now in place and they have no choice. SASA has held a number of meetings with the Regulator in this respect, without much success, other than the Regulator agreeing to receive and collate applications for exemption or submission to the relevant authority and agreeing not to institute prosecutions against companies that have already submitted such applications, pending the outcome thereof.

The 180-day window period for all affected companies to change their entire branding has already come and gone. The period was far too short in our opinion, considering the logistics and costs of this exercise — we believe that four years would have been more practical. However, where companies are wilfully using uniforms, vehicles and other branding that are, in all material aspects, identical to state entities, in an attempt to confuse or defraud the general public, we will support PSIRA in their efforts.

SASA is in the process of obtaining a legal opinion from Senior Counsel following numerous requests from members, and will, if viable, institute the necessary challenge once mandated by our members.

SASA compliance drive SASA’s compliance drive has taken off in leaps and

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bounds! PSIRA has confirmed that in just the last couple of weeks, information provided by our office to their law enforcement team has resulted in: • 11 arrests of unregistered security officers in Boksburg on the East Rand; • 5 arrests in Tonga, Mpumalanga, as well as 8 additional criminal cases; • 5 arrests in Emalahleni (Witbank) in Mpumalanga; and • 20 arrests in Rustenburg, North-West We are proud that PSIRA has recognised the work that we in SASA do to clean up the private security industry. We will continue with this task and refer the thousands of complaints that we receive every year to the relevant authorities for investigation. (Obviously, not all complaints result from non-compliance — a great number concern poor service, in which case we can only advise consumers as to their options.)

Employment equity The Department of Employment and Labour (DoEL) has published draft Employment Equity targets for various industries, based on a 5-year plan. We believe the targets for our industry are unattainable and impractical and have therefore consulted with an expert in this field to assist us in proposing a more realistic plan, which has already been submitted to the DoEL. Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF) There have been two very significant developments: • The PSSPF has announced that the previous ‘capping’ of Death and Disability Benefits to the level of a Grade A security officer has been continued. This means that all employers within the scope of their rules will now be obliged to contribute at actual Fund Salaries (ordinary or basic salaries) and employees will be entitled to the much higher benefits of these higher salary and contributions. Also, members can ‘purchase’ additional cover and they should, via their employers or directly, contact the PSSPF for more information.

• The Pension Fund Adjudicator (PFA), which is the equivalent of the “Pension Police”, has had its scope of authority dramatically widened. In the past the PFA could only handle and issue determinations (awards) in respect of complaints from specific employees, but they can now, based on ‘wider’ complaints, initiate an investigation against an entire company and, if found guilty, can serve them with a determination for all unpaid or underpaid contributions, as well as penalties, costs and late payment interest.

It is going to be interesting to see how these new powers will impact on compliance in our industry. SASA welcomes this change and will continue the battle against companies that

blatantly steal their employees’ contributions and wilfully and criminally fail to match same with the employers’ contribution, payable to the Fund.

Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) The majority of our members are experiencing serious and even insurmountable challenges in obtaining letters of good standing from the UIF Commissioner. This, we understand, is mainly because most companies close off their time sheets on, for example, the 20th or 25th of the month, in order to capture all relevant data and exceptions, to facilitate payment by the last day of the month. This leads the UIF to question as to why an employee who has joined after the abovementioned date is not receiving his or her salary in that month and therefore not contributing to the UIF. This has resulted in a very large number of companies – some of them the giants of the industry – being deemed to be UIF non-compliant and ineligible for state and other large corporate tenders. SASA will continue with our efforts to meet with the relevant officials at the UIF, in order to find a solution to this extremely serious challenge.

Benefits of SASA membership: • A strictly applied Code of Ethics • Representation at national and local government level • Industry exposure in the media as well as at major shows and exhibitions • Contacts and networking opportunities • Discounted training courses, events and seminars • Access to a security library managed by UNISA (University of South Africa) • Updates on new legislation and other industry-relevant information • Access to security-related and affiliated associations in South Africa and overseas • The SASA national website • A central administration office • Free digital subscription to Security Focus Africa magazine, the official journal of SASA • A mentorship programme which is designed to guide and assist start-up security companies with attaining the compliance standards required to qualify for Gold Membership For more information about what SASA does and how it can help you and your company, please contact: Tony Botes, SASA National Administrator, at: Tel: 0861 100 680 /

083 650 4981 Cell: 083 272 1373 Email: info@sasecurity.co.za / tony@sasecurity.co.za Website: www.sasecurity.co.za

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ASSOCIATION NEWS

News snippets from around the world security businesses. However, being a registered security officer does not equate to employment, and PSIRA’s data shows that far fewer security officers are actively employed (564,540) across the country. https://businesstech.co.za/

South Africa: Report identifies role-players in wildlife crime ecosystem

Almost 10,000 rapes occurred in July, August and September, quarterly crime stats show Murder, rape and sexual offences were the contact crimes that showed the highest increase in the three months from July to September, according to the latest quarterly crime statistics published last Friday. In the three-month period 6,163 murders occurred, a 20.7 percent increase from the same period last year, and 9,556 rapes were reported, a rise of 7.1 percent.

The number of sexual offences was 11,964 — up 4.7 percent. “The recent crime data is again demonstrating that South Africa is a violent country,” Police Minister Bheki Cele said when he presented the quarterly crime statistics. https://mg.co.za/

Head of Joburg’s ‘potholes’ agency suspended The IFP COO and Chairperson of the Johannesburg Roads Agency, Albert Mokoena, has been suspended after an investigation found that he and other board members had overreached into the agency’s executive work. The agency has a budget of about R1.5-billion a year and runs its asphalt plant, but the 12,300 km road network continues to decline. Read the report by Ferial Haffajee. www.dailymaverick.co.za

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Jeremy Vearey going after those who tried to ‘frame him’ Former Head of Detectives in the Western Cape, Major General Jeremy Vearey, has warned that he will take legal action against senior police officers following the release of a damning report into the assassination of Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) detective Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear. The report was done by police watchdog Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) after a request for an investigation by National Commissioner, Khehla Sitole and National Police Minister, Bheki Cele. www.iol.co.za

How many security guards vs police officers there are in South Africa — and why things are changing Data published by the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) shows that the country’s private security sector now dwarfs the official police force by a significant margin. PSIRA, which acts as the regulator for the private security sector in South Africa, indicates that there are over 2.4 million registered security officers across the country, with just under a million in Gauteng alone. The country is also home to over 11,370 registered

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

Some game rangers, vets, casino staff, construction and transport industry workers, as well as customs and other government officials, have been identified as role-players in the ecosystem of illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products. The finding was made by the South African Anti-Money Laundering Integrated Task Force (SAMLIT) in its profiling of role-players. In a statement last Tuesday, the SAMLIT said the various actors, and the methods they used for illegal wildlife trade (IWT), have been captured in a report compiled by an expert working group. The SAMLIT working group focused on the money flows related to this trade. It was established in 2019 by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) as a public-private partnership between the banking sector and sector regulatory authorities. https://allafrica.com/

Is a Fifth wave of Covid-19 on the horizon?

After a brief lull, new cases of Covid-19 are starting to creep back up, both in the US and in Europe, leaving many to wonder whether we’re headed toward a fifth wave, just in time for winter there.

The answer, experts say, isn’t as simple as a yes or no. And that’s because we’re in a much different place in the pandemic this year, compared to last. “It certainly does feel like a bit of déjà vu, but it’s not the same type of déjà vu,” said Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist and senior director of the System-wide Special Pathogens Program at New York City Health + Hospitals.“The world may never look like it did before the pandemic, and we may still be in for a winter surge in cases this year. But from a Covid-19 perspective, there are many reasons to

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NEWS IN BRIEF

believe that things will be much better in 2022 than they have been for us these past two years,” said David Dowdy, MD Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at a recent media briefing. www.aarp.org

“We want to avoid severe lockdowns,” says Phaahla as Covid-19 fourth wave looms Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says his department hopes to avoid a stricter lockdown level as a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections looms. This as the country continues to observe a steady rise in Covid-19 infections. www.citizen.co.za

Policing the police: Fixing the SAPS crisis is of paramount national importance South Africans are becoming more vulnerable while criminals are becoming more daring. The news of the Moti family having reportedly paid a hefty ransom of millions of rands to secure the release of their four children will only serve to embolden criminals. The unverified figure suggests that as much as R50-million was paid to the kidnappers. For the family to have paid a ransom means that they did not believe that a police investigation would secure the siblings’ return. Even criminals know that our police do not have the investigative capacity to crack such cases. And last week, another case of child kidnapping happened in Mayfair, Johannesburg, where an 11-year-old girl was abducted while being dropped off at school. This copycat behaviour points to a gap that criminals have identified — weak policing and the lucrative economic benefits it presents for them. Schools have become targets. www.dailymaverick.co.za

Father and son get 14 years for rhino horn possession, corruption The Middelburg Regional Court last Friday sentenced a father (48) and his son (27) to a total of 14 years in prison for National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act (NEMBA)-related charges. On 20 April 2019, two Mozambicans were travelling on the N4 in Nelspruit when they were stopped by the Middelburg Flying Squad members. Police searched their vehicle and recovered two rhino horns as well as shark fin. They were immediately arrested

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and they offered police officers R20,000 to turn a blind eye to the criminal act. https://ewn.co.za/

Hijackings on the rise in South Africa — here are the hotspot areas South Africa’s crime statistics for Q1 2021/2022 show another increase in hijackings across the country. The data, which was presented by national police commissioner Khehla Sitole and his officials in parliament on Friday 19 November, covers the period between July and September 2021. A total of 4,973 hijackings were reported across the country over the period — a 3.5 percent increase from the 4,803 hijackings reported over the same period last year. https://businesstech.co.za/

André de Ruyter: Deliberate acts of sabotage are causing power cuts For the first time, Eskom said last Friday, 19 November, that ‘deliberate acts of sabotage’ are causing rolling blackouts.

When a pylon smashed into a backup line last Wednesday evening at Lethabo Power Station in the Free State, Eskom declared sabotage. Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said Lethabo had been a ‘close shave’ saved by the quick-thinking of officials in the generation section of Eskom. Lethabo had, until now, been one of the most reliable power stations in the Eskom fleet. Nothing was stolen around the area where the pylon went down, ruling out theft as a motive. www.dailymaverick.co.za

July civil unrest probe: President, Cabinet must be held accountable’ OPINION: The SAHRC commissioners must consider when they conduct these hearings, how to acknowledge victims and the violence and harm suffered. At the same time, they have the responsibility to avoid causing further divisions in these bitterly divided communities, writes Yasmin Sooka. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC’s), public investigative hearings into the July civil unrest in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, began last Monday. www.iol.co.za

Guns, explosives and blades: 68 dead after prison riot breaks out in Ecuador Prison inmates from rival gangs in Ecuador fought each other with guns, explosives and blades in a bloodbath that left at least 68 dead in the same prison where a riot in September claimed 119 lives, officials said last Saturday. Authorities said late last Saturday they had regained control of the prison in Guayaquil for a second time in as many days after President Guillermo Lasso’s spokesman said fighting had again broken out earlier in the day between inmates from rival gangs tied to drug trafficking rings. www.iol.co.za

Traffickers abusing online technology, UN crime prevention agency warns Human traffickers who trick people with fake job offers and promises and then exploit them for profit, are taking

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Africa, currently, is Inanda in KwaZuluNatal, as this is the station with the highest reported cases of murder.

Between July and September 2021, 92 cases were reported to the Inanda Police Station. This is 34 more when compared to the same period in 2020 and is an increase of 58.6 percent. While Inanda is right at the top of the list, Verulam – in KwaZulu-Natal – showed the biggest increase — 225 percent. www.citizen.co.za

New police offensive to hit global crime gangs in NSW

advantage of online technologies for every step of their criminal activities. Research conducted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows how victims are being targeted and recruited via social media and online dating platforms, where personal information and details of people’s locations are readily available.

Sexual abuse and other forms of exploitation are taking place virtually and photos and videos sold further on different platforms to customers worldwide, resulting in even more money for the traffickers at no additional cost. Recently, experts from around 100 countries met online and in Vienna, Austria, to discuss strategies to combat this phenomenon and make the best use of technology to prevent human trafficking and investigate cases of this crime. The discussion formed part of the annual intergovernmental Working Group of Trafficking in Persons and centres around an in-depth background paper on this topic produced by UNODC’s Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section. “Traffickers are quick to adapt their business model to suit their needs and increase their profits, so of course they follow online trends,” explains Tiphanie Crittin, a UNODC Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer. https://news.un.org/

SIU wants Khusela Diko to answer fresh allegations South Africa’s Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has allegedly struggled to get

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former presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko to answer questions relating to fresh Digital Vibes allegations against her.

The SIU, in a report that was initially sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa in July, had found that Digital Vibes, the controversial communications company that received an allegedly irregular R132-million contract from the National Health Department, had doled out about R90.4-million to politically connected people, including R1-million to Royal Bhaca. https://mg.co.za/

Convicted child rapist as mayor a slap in voters’ faces — Gender Commission The Commission for Gender Equality said that promoting a convicted child rapist to mayor is a slap in the face of voters and all gender-based violence survivors. This, after Icosa councillors teamed up with the ANC in the Western Cape’s Kannaland to vote convicted child rapist Jeffrey Donson back into power. Back in 2004 Donson, the then-Kannaland mayor and married father of three repeatedly raped a child. He was convicted of statutory rape and indecent assault of a 15-year-old while mayor in Kannaland in 2008. https://ewn.co.za/

Crime stats: This is SA’s current murder capital The most dangerous district in South

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A new multi-agency taskforce in Sydney will face off against some of the world’s most feared criminal underworld organisations whose tentacles have sprawled into New South Wales and beyond. South American and Mexican drug cartels, Chinese triads, Italian mafia and international bikie gangs are top of the Operation Phobetor hit-list, a joint operation linking Australian Federal Police (AFP), NSW Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). Based in Sydney, the team of 20 will develop intelligence on underworld gangs, who are smuggling guns and huge consignments of illicit drugs into NSW, and laundering dirty cash in the billions. www.9news.com.au

Astroworld: Criminal investigation into Texas festival crowd surge Police in Houston, Texas, have opened a criminal investigation into the deaths of revellers at the Astroworld festival last Friday. At least eight people died and hundreds more were hurt after a crowd surge on the opening night of the music event. The victims were aged between 14 and 27. Police are also investigating reports that somebody in the audience was injecting people with drugs. www.bbc.com

UN peacekeepers face greater threats from complex conflicts The more than 87,000 personnel in UN peacekeeping missions are confronting greater threats today because conflicts have become more complex and are driven by an increasing number of factors, ranging from ethnic tensions and the impact of organised crime to illegal exploitation of resources and terrorism. www.usnews.com

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INDUSTRY OPINION

Better than all flash — solid state arrays outperform AFA on all fronts All Flash Arrays (AFA) have received a lot of hype in recent years, but despite being touted as the best storage solution for everything, this is not strictly the case.

By Lourens Sanders — Solution Architect at Infinidat

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side from being prohibitively expensive for many applications because of capacity challenges, AFAs suffer from performance bottlenecks because the media itself dictates the speed. This makes them less than ideal for critical applications that need predictable low latency and high performance.

Solid-state arrays (SSA) offer the solution, balancing cost with extreme performance and reliability to power the most mission critical applications with ease.

All flash not always the answer One of the biggest concerns around AFA is the cost, especially when high-capacity storage is required. In addition, performance bottlenecks occur because the read and write speeds are dictated by the media itself. This means that, while AFA offers low latency, there is still latency involved, and this can be unpredictable. In situations where mission critical applications are involved, this can be problematic. In addition, the capacity of AFA can be challenging, as it is typically offered in terms of effective capacity rather than actual storage ability, which makes efficient sizing a problem.

Predictable high-performance storage SSA address the issues experienced around AFA for applications and

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technologies that require highly granular, ultra-low and predictable latency as well as 100% guaranteed uptime. This is driven by Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM), and a combination of superior caching algorithm that dramatically enhances read and write functions. This effectively enables predictable sub-millisecond latency that never fluctuates. The built-in triple redundant architecture ensures 100% uptime, with a single topology that makes SSA cost effective. In addition, SSA is specified according to usable capacity, which makes growth paths and upgrades more predictable.

Ideal for critical workloads \SSA is the ideal solution for Tier 0 and Tier 1 applications that require constant, predictable ultra-low latency from a read/ write perspective, as well as superior capability for input/outputs per second (IOPS). It is also well-suited to applications that need to scale in a predictable fashion.

These applications are typically blockbased and run over fibre channel and iSCSI protocol, including mission critical workloads such as financial transactions, ecommerce, online transactional processing and database queries. It is also ideal for other high-performance applications like data mining, analysis and core business processing.

With 100% guaranteed uptime, SSA gives a superior customer experience and performance predictability, so services are always up and running. This helps to mitigate risk and provides peace of mind that there will be no downtime or bottlenecks in the storage layer, which can have a knock-on effect to the front-end. In South Africa, more and more businesses need to consolidate workloads in a single platform to break down siloes and integrate data sets while leveraging high levels of performance, low latency and cost effectiveness. This makes SSA the ideal solution in many instances.

Not always the answer While SSA is clearly required in the local market, it must be noted that not all applications necessitate this level of performance. For 95% of workloads, a hybrid storage solution leveraging traditional hard disk drives with intelligent neural caching will deliver the performance required with higher capacity at a lower price point, making it more cost effective for these applications. Storage is never a ‘one size fits all’ approach, and it is important to work with your storage provider to bring the right mix to meet requirements.

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TRAINING

Are South Africa’s security officers properly trained considering the escalation in crime?

“Escalating crime figures suggest that the 588,368 security officers deployed by 9,398 registered security businesses are not doing the job for which their clients pay.”

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o says Benedict Weaver, CEO of Zero Foundation Africa, a Pan-African corporate intelligence firm headquartered in South Africa. “Whilst it is admirable that PSiRA (Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority) has developed training standards designed to create a capable and trained private security industry in South Africa, concerns remain about the competency of officers deployed to guard sites. Whether these sites are industrial, commercial, residential, or key points, the question is: are the security officers fit for purpose, and is their current training sufficient for the job at hand?”

If they are capable and carry out their duties of protecting a

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company’s key corporate assets (property, people, information and reputation), then South Africans should have absolute confidence in the legitimacy, occupational practises, and transformation of the private security industry, he avers. But police crime statistics, the latest of which were released on 19 November by the country’s Minister of Police, General Bheki Cele, suggest that poor training and inadequate management skills in the sector – in many instances –are part of the problem rather than the solution.

Aside from the risk to corporate assets as a result of poor security service delivery, Weaver says that travellers are also increasingly vulnerable as a result of the dramatically changed global threat

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landscape. “According to well-informed sources in foreign intelligence services and security agencies, the various lockdowns have enabled terrorist groups to plan, communicate and coordinate more mayhem once travel resumes to pre-pandemic levels. The lockdowns also provided unique opportunities to radicalise disaffected individuals via the Internet, and sowed confusion amongst many with the proliferation of fake news and false information on social media platforms. Within this context, all corporate travellers are going to face heightened risks when travelling to countries whose economies have been destroyed by these lockdowns and whose populations have lost jobs and sources of legitimate income,” he warns.

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Benedict Weaver.

The need for travel security training standards Weaver says that South Africa’s security industry desperately needs training standards for corporate travellers. “Very few companies have a travel security policy and almost none have dedicated security professionals tasked with managing corporate travel security programmes for their employees.

Generally, companies transfer this risk and the insurance to some very capable travel security providers, but transferring a risk is not a suitable defence against negligence should a staff member be killed by natural or manmade causes while visiting a foreign country on business. To mitigate this risk, companies need to be aware of their Duty of Care (DoC) obligations and the costs of legal compliance.”

He continues: “Every company has a duty of care towards its employees and contractors when they are working on the company premises. With globalisation and competitive forces pressuring companies to look for new markets, business travel has increased — and with it the risks to corporate travellers.”

Common risks include physical assault, robbery, hotel room invasion, fraud, and a variety of other attacks, says Weaver, and kidnappings and abductions have increased along with hostile surveillance and the theft of sensitive proprietary information. “Given the number of reported thefts of smartphones and computers, this information is often held on unsecured laptops which are left unattended in vehicles, hotel rooms or public places,” he says.

Part of the solution, believes Weaver, is Hostile Environment Awareness Training (H.E.A.T.).

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“H.E.A.T. courses must be designed around a company’s specific operational needs. Whether delegates are seasoned travellers or are working away from home for the first time, the courses must provide all delegates with the practical knowledge and skills sets to operate in any hostile environment, with confidence.”

According to Weaver, H.E.A.T. courses comprise six critical training modules: 1. Psychology of Survival This is an understanding of how the mental processes involved when operating in a hostile environment is critical to one’s survival. A comprehensive insight about the mental attitude and fortitude required to handle stress is provided during this module. Also, a thorough understanding of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its implications enables delegates to know how to recognise and recover from such a debilitating condition.

2. Pre-Planning A person’s ability to survive when conditions change from benign to critical is largely determined by the pre-planning and preparation conducted before travelling to any destination. In Africa, the need to plan is critical to the success of one’s journey and helps company management to assist corporate travellers who find themselves isolated and far from home in negative circumstances.

3. Handling a Disaster Whether you’re living in a hotel or in an expatriate residence, there is always the risk that local conditions might deteriorate to such a state that

evacuation is imminent. By providing delegates with the knowledge and skills sets to handle themselves and others during natural or man-made disasters, corporate management is able to develop cost-effective and practicable contingency plans.

4. Kidnapping in Africa Recent experiences have shown that the crime of kidnapping for ransom or extortion is on the increase throughout the African continent. By making delegates more aware of terrorist tradecraft and the cycle of crime, they will be far better able to minimise the risk of kidnapping and optimise their chances of survival.

5. Anti- and Counter-Surveillance Physical and electronic surveillance is the most common method by which hostile intelligence and security agencies monitor the activities of expatriate personnel and corporate travellers. By understanding the nature of the threat, and how to handle such surveillance, delegates enhance their situational awareness. By improving such situational awareness, they improve their chances of survival and are able to operate effectively in any hostile environment.

6. Emergency Medicine A hostile environment is one in which there is a high risk of loss of life, limb or liberty. During the emergency medicine module, delegates are exposed to the latest medical knowledge with regard to blunt trauma and gunshot wounds. Also, the ability to organise a medical evacuation after stabilising oneself is taught, as are other techniques of medical self-preservation.

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TRAINING

Advanced training for key company personnel Whilst a H.E.A.T. course does heighten the situational awareness of delegates, other company personnel who are insured for Kidnap and Ransom (K&R) should have more specialised training, maintains Weaver. During these courses, delegates need to be briefed and experience the various stages of capture, transportation, processing, and captivity.

They must learn how to exploit weaknesses in the various scenarios they might experience, especially with regard to the type of restraints and methods of confinement used. The ability to remove duct tape, rope, flexicuffs and handcuffs are necessary not only to minimise injury and improve comfort but also to escape from captivity. Acquiring the knowledge and skills sets to know what escape tools one should carry, conceal, or manufacture from everyday materials is vital to surviving unlawful detention or imprisonment. Such advanced training involving escape and evasion should be combined with an understanding of fundamental counter-kidnap and hostage survival strategies. In this way, delegates will have the best possible chance of adapting to the demands of their captivity for however long is required.

“From a business perspective, any investment in training is money well spent,” he emphasises. “Therefore, although no training standards currently exist for corporate travellers, excellent H.E.A.T. courses and travel security consultancy services are available to provide companies with the means to mitigate their financial and reputational risks, especially amongst their travellers in Africa. Company leadership must take time to review their travel security protocols and assess their DoC obligations before a member of their staff dies or is harmed while conducting business.”

The need for Restorative Justice Practitioner training in South Africa In light of South Africa’s dire crime situation and its over-flowing prisons, Laurie Greyvenstein, director of the Social Justice Foundation, an accredited training service provider, has welcomed the greenlighting of Restorative Justice (RJ), a known concept around the world, as a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in criminal disputes in South Africa.

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He explains: “The traditional way of dealing with crime in South Africa is litigation through the Criminal Justice System (CJS) but it is a tedious, timeconsuming process and not always the best or appropriate way to deal with less serious offences. RJ is an informal process and depends on community involvement in dealing with the consequences of crime.”

It’s not without its problems, though.

Low resolution rates leave little room for community involvement in terms of meting out justice, says Greyvenstein, and crime victims often end up with a lack of closure. What’s more, there is a 94 percent recidivism rate for longterm prisoners within two years of their release.

By way of definition, restorative justice is an approach to justice with the intention of involving the parties involved in disputes or those affected by the harm, including the victims, the offenders, the families concerned and community members. It’s intended to collectively identify harm, needs and obligations through accepting responsibilities, making restitution, and taking measures to prevent a recurrence of the incident and promoting reconciliation, he explains.

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“Not all cases are appropriate for RJ but various common law crimes and many statutory offences are quite suitable for these alternative methods. The private sector can position itself in offering valuable services to communities with direct community involvement in addressing crime. This is a viable opportunity for the security industry and Community Policing Forums (CPF) to take hands in making a difference in society. RJ can be applied at any stage after a crime has been committed — from pre-reporting to post-release from prison and integrating offenders back into community life.”

Laurie Greyvenstein.

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TRAINING

Integrity training “Thousands of South Africans agree that the time has come to raise the business integrity metre but not many people really understand what that means or what it takes. Reassuring slogans and hard-hitting values exhibited on a company website may look good, but all that glitters is not always gold.”

That’s the word from Jenny Reid, director of iFacts, a South African employee screening services provider, which has partnered with the Integrity Forum to provide companies with a programme designed to cultivate true integrity in employees.

“We believe that integrity has the powerful capability to transform both business and personal lives,” says Reid, adding: “The business landscape is fraught with examples of how a lack of integrity can have devastating reputational and financial consequences.

With high levels of fraud and corruption in business, it is important to consider integrity training as a critical component of leadership and development programmes.”

While many organisations tout integrity as part of their value system, there is often a lack of understanding on how to apply it, she notes. “Organisations may

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even have a code of conduct and ethics that employees are expected to follow in the workplace. However, integrity is far more complex. It is a value that lies at the core of the individual. Individuals who have integrity will always do the next right thing. They are honest and have strong moral principles. Having integrity comes down to the individual employee making the decision to uphold those organisational ethics. In the simplest sense, ethics is not a choice whereas integrity is very much a personal choice.”

Can integrity be taught?

Yes, says Reid. “For the application of integrity to take hold, there must first be an awareness and understanding of what integrity is. iFacts has partnered with the Integrity Forum to provide an online course which teaches individuals how to define personal integrity, to look at their own level of integrity and how to apply it in their everyday life. The training will provide them with an understanding of what the cost and consequences of acting without integrity are for themselves and their organisation. In the words of Integrity Leadership Specialist Charissa Bloomberg: ‘Integrity costs nothing, but when you lose it, you lose everything,” she concludes.

Jenny Reid.

Contacts: Zero Foundation Africa Tel: +27 (0)21 712 3024 Email: info@zerofoundationafrica.com Website: www.zerofoundationafrica.com Social Justice Foundation Tel: +27 (0)84 507 4354 Email: laurie@socialjustice.co.za Website: www.socialjustice.co.za or www.socialjustice.org.za iFacts Tel: +27 (0)11 4531627 Email: info@ifacts.co.za Website: www.ifacts.co.za/integritytraining/ or www.ifacts.co.za

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TRAINING

The top ICT skills that will take your career to the next level With IT job vacancies continuing to climb as companies struggle to recruit and obtain critical skills in South Africa, there is an opportunity to upskill or reskill individuals to meet this demand.

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By Prudence Mabitsela.

rudence Mabitsela, founder and Managing Director of Dynamic DNA, a leading training and skills development company empowering Africa’s ICT (information and communications technology or technologies) generation, believes these skills are needed to build the economy of South Africa and to close the digital skills and gender divide in the country.

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) kicks into gear and more companies speed up their digitisation strategies due to the global pandemic, now is the time to add these scarce skills to your resume to ensure employability and career advancement in the sector.

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“There are many opportunities in a variety of industries, not just the IT sector,” says Mabitsela. “Jobs span across banking and financial services, retail, Fintech, government, legal, logistics and many more. It is imperative that both learnerships and upskilling or reskilling of existing employees are prioritised so that we can close the digital divide.”

One way that Mabitsela believes individuals can take advantage of this skills demand is to take specialised, certified courses which may range from one year to a few months in duration for one qualification, depending on the course, and, with the advancement of technology, many of these can be done online.

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“It is important to ensure that these courses are aligned with the MICT SETA qualifications framework and provided by an accredited training provider,” she advises. “This ensures that you receive quality education, given by qualified lecturers with a certificate that is internationally recognised.”

Here are the top 6 most in-demand IT jobs in the country and the skills you need to get ahead: Software developer There are key skills required in software development today that are worth investing in to ensure that your career

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TRAINING

coding languages, frameworks, and technologies like Java, Javascript, PHP, C#, Python, C++, SQL, and .NET. It would also be beneficial to get certifications in newer computer systems such as cybersecurity; cloud computing; platform optimisation; automation; deep learning; intuitive application development and big data.

ICT Security Specialist With the increasing rise of cybercrime, every ICT security specialist needs a range of skills to ensure their company is secure from attack. Beyond the fundamental networking and security skills, the following are worth adding to your CV: Incident Detection and Response; Security Management Frameworks; now, more than one of these common operating systems and their vulnerabilities iOS, Microsoft Windows, and Linux; understand different Network Infrastructures; Data Privacy; Data Analysis; Network Monitoring systems like Splunk, Solarwinds and Nagios; as well as soft skills such as problem-solving; teamwork and skills. stays on track. Cloud computing is one that everyone should add to their CV in 2021, as more companies move their environments into the Cloud. That means learning platforms like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform will be highly beneficial for your career.

Other skills include upskilling on version control tools such as Git and SVN; containers and tools like Docker and Kubernetes; Des such as VSCode and for Java Programmers, Eclipse, NetBeans, and IntelliJ. If you only know one database programming language, then adding a few more is critical in 2021 because this will keep you ahead of the competition.

Computer Network and Systems Engineer In the interconnected world we find ourselves in, computer networking skills are increasingly in demand. If you would like to advance your career, the following skills will ensure that you get there: Linux; Juniper; DOD; Windows; Active Directory; Network Security; VoIP; System Center Configuration Manager; Business Process; Configuration Management; OSPF; Domain Name Systems; Unix; and Architecture skills.

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ICT Systems Analyst Due to digital disruption and advancing technologies, it is important for the systems analyst to acquire the skills needed to deal with the technologies that are reshaping businesses. Advancing your skills in these technologies will definitely help you get there: AI (Artificial Intelligence); BI (Business Intelligence); Big Data; RPA (Robotic Process Automation); Blockchain; the Digital Economy; Information Security; Cloud Computing; Software Development; Agile IT Project Management; ML (Machine Learning); and DL (Deep Learning).

Programmer Analyst A programmer analyst usually has a broad skillset ranging from vital IT technology skills to softer skills such as communication, problem solving and even creativity. From a tech perspective these are the most sought-after skills: developing apps in the .NET framework; database management; Microsoft SQL Server; managing and securing Windowsbased apps; developing web apps; create mobile apps with .NET; able to use a range of operating systems; advanced Java features; develop interactive client-side web pages; and use popular

Business Analyst It is important as a business analyst to stay up to date with industry developments and be able to analyse the capabilities of the myriad of tools out there. From a technical perspective, depending on your current certifications, it is worth updating these skills in 2021: Data Analysis; Business Process Models; SQL Server; Microsoft Visio; Test Cases; Test Plans; UAT; Data Warehouse; JAD; Application Development; User Acceptance; UML; Web; Activity Diagrams; QA, SME and many more.

You also want to add non-technical skills like research, negotiation, communication, financial planning, and decision-making to your CV if you haven’t already.

These specialised skills will develop your career and set you apart from the competition, not to mention securing your employability well into the future.

Take your future into your hands and speak to your employer about how you can close the digital skills gap in your organisation.

Further information To find out more, go to www.dynamicdna.co.za or contact 011 759 5940.

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WELLBEING ISS

The African Union should up its engagements as the UN Security Council takes the lead on maritime security debates Coastal states and the shipping industry are confronting maritime security challenges in all of the seas and oceans surrounding Africa. These include the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, the Gulf of Aden and the Mozambique Channel in Eastern and Southern Africa, and the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

By Timothy Walker, Maritime Project Leader and Senior Researcher, ISS Pretoria who works for the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). This article was first published by ISS’ PSC Report. It is funded by the Government of Norway.

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llegal arms and drug trafficking, piracy and armed robbery at sea (especially in the Gulf of Guinea) are the leading threats. There are also persistent concerns over illicit bunkering of oil and crude oil theft, maritime terrorism, human trafficking, environmental harm caused by waste dumping, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and overfishing.

Africa must urgently strengthen its maritime institutions to tackle these problems.

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The Kenya-Somali maritime boundary dispute exposes the several unresolved maritime border disputes around the continent. The mechanisms for resolving these conflicts peacefully are either contested or haven’t been given the required capacity.

Major maritime crimes in African waters are often transnational in origin and impact, defying simple, unilateral solutions.

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Yet the African Union and regional structures for mobilising joint action among African states seldom prioritise maritime issues or their consequences for the continent.

This must change. Maritime threats significantly undermine socio-economic progress across the continent, including the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area. They also fuel violence and corruption.

Major maritime crimes in African waters are often transnational and defy simple,

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SUCCESS ISSSTORY

unilateral solutions Maritime insecurity has become the focus of several recent United Nations Security Council (UNSC) interventions. In August, India used its UNSC presidency to convene the first open debate on ‘Enhancing maritime security: a case for international cooperation’. The UNSC is swiftly becoming the favoured forum for maritime security debates. And it was the three non-permanent African members that encouraged this development.

Equatorial Guinea organised and chaired a UNSC meeting on 5 February 2019 to discuss transnational organised crime at sea and the links between terrorism, piracy and illegal trafficking. On 18 December 2018, Côte d’Ivoire initiated a debate on the threat drug trafficking poses to stability in West Africa. Informal Arria-formula meetings called by member states complement these dialogues.

At the multilateral level, Africa is also taking stock of its unique maritime security issues. The African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) discussed the matter on 23 July 2021. But this was only its seventh meeting on maritime safety out of the more than 1,000 the council has convened after its doors opened in 2004.

Since 2019, African countries have preferred their maritime concerns to be addressed by the UNSC. This gives the impression of a PSC unmoored and marooned from African states’ maritime security policies and interests. In the world’s eyes, this is making the UNSC, rather than the PSC, the leading forum for determining how best to fight maritime crime around Africa.

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The PSC should address the fact that the AU’s maritime strategy continues to fall behind schedule

The AU and PSC should set up an African maritime strategic support group to conduct progress reviews

Despite this lacuna, there is a lot that the PSC should be doing. At a 2013 meeting, the council described maritime security and the blue economy as the ‘new front line of Africa’s renaissance.’

By including maritime issues in Agenda 2063, the AU Commission has made the creation of blue economies in safe and secure African waters essential to its achievement.

Insecurity at sea makes it difficult for states to secure trade routes, protect and harness the benefits of their blue economies, and ensure economic growth and social development for coastal communities. The PSC and AU member states should begin crafting and implementing plans that cross-cut national, regional and continental levels.

The PSC needs to urgently address the fact that the AU’s 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy (2050 AIM Strategy) continues to fall behind its schedule, despite numerous AU decisions and requests.

According to the PSC Protocol, the council must address security challenges and promote peace and sustainable development. Yet as the Institute for Security Studies’ Len le Roux observed in 2009, the protocol and the 2004 Common African Defence and Security Policy ‘[leave] the impression of an Africa without a coastline or maritime zone, let alone broader maritime interests such as trade and maritime resources.’

Maritime issues are inadequately

mainstreamed in the overall work of the AU. There’s seldom any explicit reference to maritime security in the structures intended to mobilise continental action against conflict and insecurity. The lack of alignment between the maritime security plans of regional economic communities and the 2050 AIM Strategy further complicates this picture.

The AU formed a maritime strategic task force in 2011, comprising representatives from member states, the AU Commission and regional economic communities.

Since 2017 it has focused on finalising the annexes to the African Charter on Maritime Security and Safety and Development in Africa (the Lomé Charter).

These are now complete, so the task force should return to its primary job — drawing up a roadmap for implementing the 2050 AIM Strategy in line with international maritime law.

Maritime security and transnational crimes at sea must become a regular item in the PSC’s discussions and reports.

The AU and PSC should also convene an open-ended African maritime consultative forum or strategic support group to facilitate periodic progress reviews.

A maritime platform could establish a body of experts who coordinate, share knowledge and make recommendations on maritime security and the blue economy. Such a strategic group would be vital to guide member states and other stakeholders in delivering on the AU’s 2050 AIM Strategy and Lomé Charter.

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REPORT BACK

Murder, rape and assault all up according to latest police crime statistics — “South Africa is a VERY violent country,” says Police Minister General Bheki Cele.

In his speech on 19 November 2021 on South Africa’s Quarter Two Crime Statistics 2021/2022, Police Minister General Bheki Cele emphasised that the statistics pertained to the period under which the country was in varying stages of lockdown and that they ‘compared to a corresponding period in the 2019/2020 financial year’.

From https://www.gov.za/speeches/speaking-notes-delivered-police-minister-general%C2%A0bheki-cele-mp-occasionrelease-%C2%A0quarter

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hile the figures did not ‘reflect a crime holiday’, he said, neither were they ‘as alarming as the previous quarter figures, which were skewed’.

Murder According to Cele, murder increased by 20.7 percent during the three months of reporting — but “when compared to the previous normal period of (the) 2019/2020 financial year, a period with no lockdown, the murder percentage change would have been a 13.2 percent increase,” he said.

The percentage translates to 6,163 murders, up by 1,056 year-on-year,

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though ‘compared to a period without lockdown, this would have resulted in an increase of 717 deaths.’

The July unrests were contributing factors to the murder rate, he continued, claiming the lives of 1,744 people. That said, “While it is clear that the July unrests contributed to the murder figures before us, we must concede that other provinces such as Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and the North West recorded double digit increases in murder cases during this reporting period,” Cele noted, adding: “However, a glimmer of hope is shining through from the Western Cape province. It is the only province to record a decrease in its murder cases.”

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Causes of murder According to the stats, 1,334 murders occurred at the homes of victims and perpetrators. “From a sample of 5,176 cases it was determined that… 2,424 people were murdered in public places such as streets, open fields, parking areas and abandoned buildings… (and) 424 of the murders occurred at taverns, shebeens, nightclubs and bottle stores,” he said. During this period, 23 SAPS officers were killed.

Contact crimes Overall, said Cele, contact crimes increased by 1.0 percent but, he added, “If a comparison is made to a normal period prior to the country being placed

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REPORT XXXBACK

under lockdown, this would have resulted in a decrease of 10.7 percent.”

Regarding sexual offences, a 4.7 percent increase was recorded but this figure is revised to a decrease of 12.9 percent if compared to previous normal period of 2019/2020 financial year. (sic) Rape Between July and September this year, 9,556 people were raped — an increase of 634 cases, amounting to a 7,1 percent increase compared to the previous reporting period. “With almost 10,000 people being brutalised and sexually violated in just three months in South Africa, (this) is a disgrace and deeply disturbing,” he said.

Farm attacks Fifteen murders occurred on farms and smallholdings between the months of July and September 2021 — two more murders than the previous reporting period, Cele said.

Property-related crimes One of the categories which showed a decrease was that of property-related crimes — according to Cele, the decrease was 6.2 percent. Stock theft also declined by 9.2 percent. Burglary at non-residential premises, however, recorded a doubledigit increase of 18.2 percent.

September this year — a double digit percentage decrease of 18.8 percent.

Contact-related crimes All contact-related crimes, including arson and malicious damage to property, recorded increases during the second quarter: 298 more cases of arson were reported — a 30,2 percent increase compared to the same time last year, and 28,988 cases of contact-related crimes (1,997 more than the previous reporting period).

Kidnappings Between July and September 2021, 2,000 kidnapping cases were reported to the police — according to Cele, the majority were high-jacking related, followed by robbery, rape and, “out of a sample of 620 cases, 52 kidnapping cases were ransom related and most occurred in the Gauteng Province. Seven kidnappings were as a result of human trafficking,” he noted.

DNA backlog “In our continued efforts, as the SAPS, to avoid secondary victimisation at police stations, the rolling-out of GBV (Gender Based Violence) desks is on course,” he said, adding: “These GBV desks are manned by police officers, specifically trained to provide victim-centred assistance… To date, 134 such desks are in operation and the goal is to have a GBV desk in all police stations countrywide. On the same score, the Police Ministry and SAPS management are rolling out the turn-around strategy that is making inroads in tackling the DNA backlog experienced at SAPS Forensic Science Laboratories. We are confident that we will, in the near future, be able to take the nation into confidence and announce progress made on the DNA backlog.”

Major General Thulare Sekhukhune then presented an overview of the 2021/2022 Quarter Two Crime Statistics as follows:

Crime Category

Figures

Murder 20.7% Sexual offences

4.7%

Attempted murder

4.4%

Assault to do grievous bodily harm (GBH)

2.1%

Common assault

0.8%

Assault The SAPS crime data demonstrates ‘that South Africa is a VERY violent country’ evidenced by double-digit percentage increases in all assault categories, said Cele. To this end, 72,762 cases of common assault and assault GBH (grievous bodily harm) were opened with the police in the three months of reporting. Over 13,000 of the assault cases were domestic violence-related, and alcohol and drugs were involved in 3,695 of the assault GBH cases, he said.

Aggravated robberies such as carjackings increased by 3.5 percent compared to the previous corresponding period, but there were 388 less residential robberies in the month of July to September 2021, compared to the corresponding period in the previous financial year.

Common robbery

– 2.5%

Robbery with aggravating circumstances

– 3.9%

Burglary at non-residential premises

18.2%

Cash-in-transit (CIT) “Police are starting to make much-needed gains in responding to brazen gangs targeting cash vans,” Cele said, with 12 less heists committed between July and

Burglary at residential premises

– 8.5%

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Rape 7.1% Sexual assault

– 0.3%

Attempted sexual offences

– 11.3%

Contact sexual offences

– 12.7%

Carjacking 3.5% Robbery at residential premises

– 6.7%

Robbery at non-residential premises

– 1.4%

Robbery of cash-in-transit (CIT) Bank robbery

*** One case

Truck hijacking

– 0.2%

Arson 30.2% Malicious damage to property

Theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles Stock theft

6.5%

–14.0 – 9.2%

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CASE STUDY

BidAir Cargo revolutionises disaster recovery strategy with data backup system from DMP South Africa BidAir Cargo, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BidVest Group, offers an express cargo airline service from airport to airport to 37 destinations in Southern and Eastern Africa.

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he outdated backup system that was in place also needed to be replaced, and the company turned to Data Management Professionals South Africa (DMP SA), who recently joined forces with Gabsten Technologies, to deliver a modern, automated and more effective solution.

Learning from past mistakes “The backup system we inherited backed up our physical server on site to a NAS device, and from there the backup was manually replicated onto hard drives that were then placed into rugged cases and physically shipped off to Metrofile on a daily basis. It was incredibly labour intensive, requiring a significant amount of human intervention, which always creates the potential for error,” says Hans Goosen, IT Manager for BidAir Cargo.

“In addition, prior to the split, we had been the victims of a ransomware attack that had encrypted all our data, which had required us to completely rebuild our servers and redeploy from backups. We had to format the servers, reload the operating system and software, physically obtain the backups from storage, and then manually restore the data. The entire process took nearly three days and we were completely offline for the duration.

We also lost a day of data due to the encrypted backup. We had to prevent the possibility of this type of downtime from occurring again, so a new backup system was essential,” he adds.

Better, faster, cheaper After being referred to DMP SA, the teams met to discuss the best solution to meet BidAir Cargo’s requirements, including a complete backup of physical servers, hosts and virtual machines. Ultimately, the decision came down to cost in relation to functionality, and the quoted solution from DMP SA was under budget while meeting every requirement. From beginning discussions to completed implementation took less than two weeks, including migration of all servers into a local datacentre with physical host servers and

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virtual servers, as well as interconnects and third-party integrations.

“With our new backup solution, we can restore our full server back to the time of the latest snapshot. We have twice daily backups going back 90 days, monthly backups going back for a year, and annual backups for the past five years, more than meeting best practice standards and our minimum requirements,” says Goosen.

From days to minutes The automated backup and recovery system ensures that business critical data is always available and downtime is minimised. Each morning, BidAir Cargo receives a status report confirming the health of backups and detailing any errors that occurred and that were fixed.

BidAir Cargo has tested the system as well as experienced real scenarios that required data to be recovered, and all incidents met the required recovery time objectives.

“We have challenged the system with a complete shutdown, like we experienced during the past ransomware attack, and instead of three days to recover, it took just 46 minutes from the report being logged to being completely back up and running, with a full copy of the latest backup data,” says Goosen.

In addition, at the beginning of October 2021, corrupt critical folders linked to several websites caused the sites to be inaccessible. The incident was detected and within a few minutes DMP SA had remotely restored the folders, seamlessly, minimising downtime and thus impact to customer service. BidAir Cargo has also performed three quarterly disaster recovery tests for audit purposes since the system went live, and each was a complete success.

Offsite backup for added peace of mind The recent rioting and looting caused concern within the BidAir Cargo IT team about the ability to recover data should something happen to the physical data centres, and the company began to

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Hans Goosen

investigate out-of-country backups as well. DMP SA recommended Microsoft Azure cold storage in Europe, and within 24 hours of receiving the request and costing approval, had integrated the new solution.

Ultimate peace of mind “The data hosted on our servers are critical to our business. Without access to this data, we cannot function. Our backup and recovery solution from DMP SA has revolutionised our disaster recovery strategy and vastly enhanced processes with automated tasks. The risk of human error has been effectively eliminated, compliance and auditing are far simpler prospects, and previously time-consuming tasks can be completed in a matter of minutes,” says Goosen.

“The biggest mistake businesses make is waiting until something goes wrong before updating their backup and recovery strategy. We had the unfortunate experience of knowing exactly the impact of an outdated solution, and we knew that we needed to address the issue urgently. Now we have complete peace of mind that our data is protected and available, which in turn protects our business continuity and our reputation,” he concludes.

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TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

AI will reduce SA’s crime stats as early as 2023 Applying artificial intelligence to big data can predict – and prevent – crime.

By Warren Myers, CEO and co-founder of security and medical response marketplace AURA.

W

hen a social media site throws out an advert for a product you were just discussing over the phone, it’s easy to jump to conclusions: They must be listening, surely.

But the truth is that the site employed artificial intelligence (AI) to predict your behaviour. You searched for a yeast starter last week and commented on a friend’s photo of sourdough bread yesterday. The ad for a bread-making course that seemingly pops up out of the blue was shown to you because the data predicted you might be interested in it — based on your own and previous users’ behaviour.

Those same principles can be applied to fight crime — and soon will.

From road accidents to riots When it comes to crime, it’s not quite as simple as scraping social media to find people who did successive searches for ‘crowbar’ and ‘balaclava’. Data exists to predict, and thus prevent, crime — it’s just not being analysed as yet. There is a wealth of information to predict the likelihood of crime. It spans from the obvious indicators – like a person’s presence in a bad part of town – to the surprising, which includes weather patterns and the days of the week.

A Finnish study, for example, showed that a 1°C increase in temperature results in a 1.7 percent increase in criminal

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activity – based on two decades’ worth of data. Another study in the US proved that vehicle theft spikes on weekends and in the evenings. And science has even shown that when a local football team loses unexpectedly, domestic violence incidents increase by 10 percent.

By collating all this data, and past crime statistics, information from tipping lines, social media scraping, CCTV (closed circuit television), and more, crime can be predicted, and emergency services proactively dispatched before it’s too late.

The principle can also be used to predict spikes in traffic accidents and dispatch emergency services to nearby locations for even faster response times.

The artificial intelligence (AI) employed is similar to Uber’s algorithms which predict when and where there will be a high probability of ride requests so they can dispatch drivers proactively.

So, when it comes to riots, this principle is the only practical answer.

Riots – like the ones parts of South Africa was subjected to recently – are one of the most difficult emergency incidents to manage because they have such a staggering snowball effect.

History has shown that once a riot escalates past a certain point, almost nothing can be done that won’t be to the detriment of everyone involved. By predicting it, it can be prevented or contained in the early stages.

Using AI proactively At the moment, emergency services – from ambulances to private security and police – largely operate on a reactive basis. A call comes in, and a vehicle is dispatched to assist. As the country’s crime and emergency statistics keep increasing, it’s clear that a proactive approach is the answer. And it will happen soon: Predictability fuelled by AI and big data can reduce violent crimes by 25 percent as early as 2023.

Data engineers at AURA* are already working on expanding its existing security and medical response algorithms, to become the centre repository for risk data.

Hundreds of informants will be employed to operate on the ground and send information to the repository. Augmented with pools of data collected from available and existing sources, this information feeds into a so-called data lake, where AI is applied to create the intelligence that can predict crime and other emergencies. By combining the forces of AI, private and public security, crime can be fought in a collective, coordinated, and proactive way.

Safety should be a basic human right, not a privilege. And now, it can be. *AURA is currently South Africa’s leading security and medical response marketplace, gathering and centralising data from over 170 private security companies before applying AI to dispatch the closest vetted response vehicle to its +250,000 active users.

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

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SPECIAL FEATURE

For the sake of our children and youth: Let us build safer and more harmonious post-Covid-19 societies Children are under siege in South Africa, and we are exposing our glaring failures to them; in schools, and in the homes where they are supposed to find sanctuary and be the safest, adolescent girls of all ages are victims of unspeakable violence.

Republished with permission, from ACCORD: https://www.accord.org.za/analysis/for-the-sake-of-our-children-andyouth-let-us-build-safer-and-more-harmonious-post-covid-19-societies/

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am writing from a place of anguish as I continue to bear witness to the fate of adolescents and young women in South Africa, indeed, across the globe. It is the fate of young women in South Africa, and around the globe, to which I would like to give voice and flesh.

This is about an everyday issue which we must resolve as a human family, but in the spirit of opening a debate, I have more questions than answers. I am also filled with a sense of unsettled urgency, as there is still so much work to be done to bring us closer to our world of justice and peace.

How can we break the vicious circle of untold and unspeakable pain that visit women and children on a daily basis?

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While the days of the brutal Apartheid regime are thankfully behind us, we are still a nation at war with ourselves; we are plagued by deeply entrenched and festering wounds. And perhaps one of the most visible manifestations of this is our violent and unequal society. Archbishop Tutu once said, “Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are”.

And he is absolutely right.

Children are under siege in South Africa, and we are exposing our glaring failures to them; in schools, and in the homes where they are supposed to find sanctuary and be the safest, adolescent girls of all ages are

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

In this country, the land of Tutu and Madiba’s birth, and on this continent, the home of greats such as Wangari Maathai, and Gertrude Mongella, it is an affront to the nobility of our ancestors to allow our youngest generations to suffer in the ways they do.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

victims of unspeakable violence. They suffer from bullying and sexual violence at the hands of their male family members, and from fellow students and teachers.

New alarming figures from South Africa’s most populous province, Gauteng province’s Department of Health show that more than 23,000 girls aged under 18 gave birth between April 2020 and March 2021, and of which 954 were aged between 10 and 14. The number of children born to teen mothers in Gauteng province alone has jumped to 60% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Why is there not an outcry over what is in essence, a statutory rape epidemic in this country? It was further revealed that nearly 3,000 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 have had to take the heart wrenching and life altering decision to terminate their pregnancies. Girls in the metropolis of Johannesburg are not alone. Nearly 13,500 girls in the Western Cape became pregnant in the last year, the majority of them aged between 15 and 19. There are precious lives behind these cold numbers, these are the beautiful faces, brilliant minds, and vibrant voices of our daughters, nieces, sisters, whose childhood and innocence we have left unprotected.

And these shocking statistics on teenage pregnancy, do not even paint an accurate, nor comprehensive picture of our disregard for the young people. So we need to be more honest, and nuanced in analysis of what is really going on. We need higher quality data and desegregated reporting, which captures pregnancy classifications under categories including statutory rape, intimidation, coercion, intra family sexual abuse, and incest. The data must expose these atrocities and guide proper corrective measures to bring an end to the violence against girls and women faced on a daily basis.

And as many adolescent girls mature into adulthood, often their fate is no less hospitable, women are under attack daily in South Africa. A woman dies at the hands of her intimate partner every eight hours. This translates into three women being killed by their loved ones every single day. And it is reported that more women are killed by their current or former partners here than in any other country in the world. Why has what is so grotesquely abnormal, become normalised to us? In this country, the land of Tutu and Madiba’s birth, and on this continent, the home of greats such as Wangari Maathai, and Gertrude Mongella it is an affront to the nobility of our ancestors to allow our

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youngest generations to suffer in the ways they do.

We are passing on our trauma to our next generation. Our children are growing up experiencing hostility, exploitation, and abuse on a daily basis. If not directly first-hand, they are exposed to these traumas second-hand in these social media feeds, and in the news headlines as well.

And so, it should come as no surprise that – having been socialised in a culture of violence – a natural tendency will be to operate in the world from a place of aggression, physical combativeness and hopelessness. Are we not in need of a therapy of the soul to undertake the monumental task of transformation and untangle ourselves from the wicked webs of our trauma and toxic patriarchy?

We as adults, have to change. We have a constitution, codes, progressive policies and legislation in place to protect women and children. But our failure is one of our human nature. We have to change our mindsets, our behaviours, our value system; we must reinvent our relationships, and reengineer the way we relate in our families, in our schools, in our workplaces.

A future of justice will only be possible when we see and treat each other with dignity, with the reverence of our physical and mental health and the compassion that comes from recognising and respecting the humanity in one another.

None of us must spare the strength, nor courage required to collectively soul search and reengineer our relationships into ones of respect and equity.

We are a society at war with itself. We

adults are wounded; we are unhealed individuals who come together to form families and communities which are then fractured and broken as well. What is required for us to build safer, more harmonious societies, ones where we have healthy relationships with those we love?

How do we ensure those who are custodians of safety and security, actually treasure and cherish those they are meant to protect and adore? The value of a child’s life, their protection and wellbeing need to be our paramount concern as a society.

Peace and justice has to start and reside in the hearts of each one of us, in the hearts of our families and in the hearts of our communities.

Madam Graça Machel is the Chair of ACCORD’s Board of Trustees.

This article was adapted from a speech presented by Madam Machel at the 11th Desmond Tutu Peace Lecture.

What is required is for us to build safer, more harmonious societies, ones where we have healthy relationships with those we love. The value of a child’s life, their protection and wellbeing need to be our paramount concern as a society.

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PERSONALITY XXX PROFILE

FW de Klerk “De Klerk’s legacy is a big one. It is also an uneven one, something South Africans are called to reckon with in this moment.” — Sello Hatang, Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation

F

ollowing the death of FW de Klerk on 11 November 2021, aged 85, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa released a statement in which he credited the former president with playing a “vital role in our transition to democracy in the 1990s, which originated from his first meeting in 1989, with President Nelson Mandela, who was a political prisoner at that stage.”

De Klerk “took the courageous decision to unban political parties, release political prisoners and enter into negotiations with the liberation movement amid severe pressure to the contrary from many in his political constituency,” he said, adding that he was “a committed South African who embraced the democratic constitutional dispensation and placed the long-term future of the country ahead of narrow political interests. Serving as Deputy President from 1994 to 1996, Mr De Klerk played an important role in the Government of National Unity, dedicating himself to the constitutional imperative of healing the divisions and conflict of our

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past. Deputy President De Klerk’s passing, weeks before the 25th anniversary of our democratic Constitution, should inspire all of us to reflect on the birth of our democracy and on our shared duty to remain true to the values of our Constitution. May his soul rest in peace.”

The early years Frederik Willem “FW” de Klerk was born on 18 March 1936 in Johannesburg to a cabinet minister father, which perhaps accounted for his interest in politics from a young age. He matriculated at Monument High School in Krugersdorp, after which he attended Potchefstroom University. In 1958 he graduated with BA and LLB degrees (cum laude) and then landed his first job with a firm of attorneys in Vereeniging. In 1972 he was offered the position of Chair of Administrative Law at Potchefstroom University but declined it, having decided to enter active politics. That same year, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Vereeniging.

In 1978, just after his 42nd birthday and,

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

with a mere five and a half years as a back bencher (defined by the Collins Dictionary as a member of Parliament who is not a minister and who does not hold an official position in his or her political party), he was appointed to the Cabinet.

During the ensuing 11 years, he was responsible for various portfolios including Posts and Telecommunications; Social Welfare and Pensions; Sport and Recreation; Mining and Environmental Planning; Mineral and Energy Affairs; Internal Affairs and the Public Service; and National Education, the portfolio he held when he was elected as State President in 1989. It was a position he held until the inauguration of the country’s first democratically-elected president Nelson Mandela on 10 May 1994, after which he served as deputy president in the National Unity Government until 1996.

In his address at the opening of the second session of the ninth parliament in South Africa on 2 February 1990, he said: “Our country and all its people have been embroiled in conflict, tension and violent

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PERSONALITY PROFILE

struggle for decades. It is time for us to break out of the cycle of violence and break through to peace and reconciliation.

The silent majority is yearning for this. The youth deserve it.”

According to Wikipedia, his decision to end apartheid came as a surprise/shock to many. “He was aware that growing ethnic animosity and violence was leading South Africa into a racial civil war. Amid this violence, the state security forces committed widespread human rights abuses and encouraged violence between the Xhosa and Zulu people, although De Klerk later denied sanctioning such actions.

He permitted anti-apartheid marches to take place, legalised a range of previously banned anti-apartheid political parties, and freed imprisoned anti-apartheid activists such as Nelson Mandela. He also dismantled South Africa’s nuclear weapons program.”

A multiple award winner with a host of honorary titles bestowed on him during his long career, his most significant was surely the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with Nelson Mandela in 1993 “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.”

He was a controversial figure among many sections of South African society, says Wikipedia, for varying reasons. On the negative side, he was criticised for not apologising without reserve for apartheid; for failing to address human rights abuses committed by state security forces, and for selling out the white minority.

His personal life also came under negative scrutiny, when in 1999, his affair with Elita Georgiades was exposed, effectively ending his marriage to Marike de Klerk (who was murdered in 2000).

Addressing the past In his “Dealing with the Past” speech to the Cape Town Press Club in October 2020, De Klerk denied that the antiapartheid negotiations were the result of any weakness on the part of the ruling party but rather because “we genuinely wanted to find a just and lasting solution to the vexatious problems that had divided us for generations. We wanted to create a better country for all our children.”

In the same speech, he referred to his ‘apology‘ being “grounded in a deep and growing understanding of the pain, humiliation and damage that apartheid has caused for a majority of all South Africans. It is in this spirit that my

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Taken at the first meeting between FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela.

colleagues and I repealed the last vestiges of apartheid legislation before we opened the way to negotiations on a new and inclusive non-racial constitution. In 1994, the baton passed to a new generation of leaders. Their challenge is to take the political, economic and constitutional situation that they inherited and to ensure that they leave a better legacy for the next generation.”

“In this regard, we all face tremendous problems,” he continued. “South Africa is a traumatised society. Traumatised by the legacy of apartheid. But also traumatised by growing poverty and unemployment, by violent crime and corruption, by gender violence and by an imploding economy.”

In January 1999 De Klerk published his autobiography “The Last Trek – a New

Beginning”. In the same year, he established the FW de Klerk Foundation to uphold the South African Constitution, promote peace in multicommunal societies, preserve his own presidential heritage and South Africa’s constitutional transformation from apartheid to a non-racial constitutional democracy.

Diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer in 2020, FW lost his battle to the disease on 11 November 2021. Up until the time of his death, he lived in Fresnaye in Cape Town, where he read, enjoyed being outdoors and playing golf, and spending time with his family. His cremation and funeral took place on 21 November 2021, a private occasion shared only with those dearest to him.

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SECURITY IN ACTION

An image of a hologram.

Global trade body warns again over surge in fake Covid cards More investment in anti-counterfeiting measures, urges IHMA.

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n April of this year, 45 US attorney generals called on social media and tech companies to crack down on fraudulent vaccination cards known to be circulating online. In a letter to the CEOs of Twitter, Shopify and eBay, officials asked that companies take action to prevent the sale of fake vaccine cards on their platforms. “It has come to our attention that your platforms are being used to market and sell blank or fraudulently completed Covid vaccine cards bearing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logo,” the letter said.

Despite these efforts, news reports continue to indicate that the online trade in fake documents is booming, so the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) is calling for global supply chains and authorities to immediately review their anticounterfeiting plans and investment in security resources.

According to the IHMA, an array of authentication and verification technologies are in existence, including holograms, that should be deployed immediately to better protect people and document distribution channels.

Thousands of online traders are

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offering near-perfect copies of Covid vaccination cards at rapidly rising prices, reports US news outlets, with some selling a single card for hundreds of dollars. The US Customs and Border Protection has been intercepting thousands of packages of fake cards from China and has admitted that it’s “…basically stopped keeping track, because there were so many”.

The problem is such, says the trade body, that earlier this year, research by a cybersecurity firm uncovered an estimated 1,200 vendors around the world offering false documents.

Counterfeiting is a multi-billion-dollar global problem but the surge in fake Covid documents is concerning as criminals continue to take advantage of the situation, said Dr Paul Dunn, chair of the IHMA. He added: “The use of counterfeit vaccine cards puts people and their friends and families at risk and must be stopped. Supply chains have to be bolstered with countries enhancing their anti-counterfeiting plans, which include the introduction of harder hitting anticounterfeiting legislation and strategies.

“The use of track-and-trace programmes featuring security devices

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Dr Paul Dunn, IHMA chair.

are especially helpful in proving the authenticity of Covid documentation and passports. This can be effective, reassuring those in law enforcement and government as well as consumers that documents are genuine, safe and secure.”

The use of well-designed and properly deployed authentication solutions, as advocated by the ISO12931 standard, enables examiners to verify the authenticity of a legitimate product, differentiating it from fake products coming from counterfeiting hot spots such as China. Even those that carry a ‘fake’ authentication feature can be distinguished from the genuine item if that item carries a carefully thought-out authentication solution.

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CYBER SECURITY

How attackers ramp up the pressure to pay R ansomware attackers are implementing a wide range of ruthless pressure tactics to persuade victims to pay the ransom.

Below are the top 10 ways that attackers are increasing pressure on their ransomware victims to get them to pay the ransom: • Stealing data and threatening to publish or auction it online • Emailing and calling employees, including senior executives, threatening to reveal their personal information • Notifying or threatening to notify business partners, customers, the media, and more of the data breach and exfiltration • Silencing victims by warning them not to contact the authorities • Recruiting insiders to help them breach networks • Resetting passwords • Phishing attacks targeting victim email accounts

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• Deleting online backups and shadow volume copies • Printing physical copies of the ransom note on all connected devices, including point of sale terminals • Launching distributed denial-of-service attacks against the target’s website The article explains each tactic in more detail, with examples of ransomware groups that have deployed that tactic. The article also includes advice on what defenders can do to protect their organisation and employees from attacker behaviors and cyberthreats in general.

Further information on attacker behaviours, real-world incident reports and advice for security operations professionals is available on Sophos News SecOps. Tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), and more, for different types of ransomware are available on SophosLab Uncut, the home of Sophos’ latest threat intelligence.

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CYBER SECURITY

Adapting African cities for a better, safer life While many have focused on data analysis and its security at an organisational level, it is even more imperative for the realisation of smarter and more sustainable cities capable of providing citizens with a better, safer lifestyle.

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ake consumption data of water and electricity at buildings as an example. This is often incorrect or unreliable. In many African countries both these utilities are distressed and putting measures in place to review the data and find ways to optimise usage cannot be ignored. While identifying low-hanging fruit like leaks, running taps, lights that do not get switched off or are not energy efficient might sound selfevident, it is concerning how these basics are still not followed,” says Alison Groves, Regional Director, WSP in Africa.

Things like Energy Performance Certification (EPC) are starting to force building managers to interrogate their

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consumption data better and use technology to optimise usage. This is where technology for resilience becomes essential as this may assist in identifying where resources are wasted.

“Of course, this is not an easy undertaking. Just consider taking data from a building with 38 water meters and the same amount of electricity meters and trying to make sense of it. Data analysis, and putting it in a format to tell a story to managers therefore becomes one of the most critically important skills to have in a digital world. Ultimately, data becomes the cornerstone of sustainability and people must have the skills to effectively analyse it,” says Groves.

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Furthermore, the popularisation of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to help capture data at the source, in cities, is gaining momentum. This data can be used to create a safer environment. For instance, by enabling commuters to live track public transport, they do not have to stand and wait at a bus stop. They can see exactly where the bus is and plan accordingly. This increases the reliability and appeal of public transport. People can also use their smartphones to geolocate potholes through an app that can help the municipality speed up its response time to fix problems. Such reporting has already had a beneficial reaction in terms of putting more accountability in place for

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CYBER SECURITY

a city, by making it operate seamlessly, policy and design become critical to make living there a sustainable exercise.

Reducing the travel footprint (less commuting) and optimising the transport of goods and services, new build smart cities can circumvent the challenges found in existing cities. These smart cities can also have sensors in place to detect problems early on as opposed to the challenges of applying these to existing spaces that might not be suited for those sensors.

“Think of a green city as using less resources and a smart city as a place where everybody wants to be. Both these are converging and creating an environment that is more resilient, and thereby sustainable. This new smart city is essentially just a larger version of a smart building. Of course, the data that is generated operates on a significantly larger footprint,” continues Groves.

“Additionally, key lessons learnt in new build smart cities can also be suitably adapted and applied to retrofit existing spaces in support of reduced emissions, improved efficiencies and boasting carbon neutrality.”

cities to improve service delivery.

Groves suggests that another consideration is the need to have all buildings operating to NetZero carbon standards by 2050.

“To achieve this goal, NetZero buildings will require some form of self-sustaining renewable energy and localised smart grids that are managed by sensors and data. Building on this, integrated weather sensors will also help to predict availability of power and thereby enable the smart building information system for the premises to prioritise energy requirements by tuning down or switching off nonessentials — especially when there is little solar PV available, for example,” says Groves.

“But, without policies in place to manage data from these integrated systems, it will be extremely challenging to realise. However, private companies are pushing towards that. And this is where smart cities can also play a role. By integrating the live, work, and play ethos in cities that are technology-enabled and focused on sustainability, there is potential to positively disrupt the market,” adds Groves.

With technology used to draw people to

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Security considerations to onboard in this process But we know that wherever there is data, there is a danger of threat actors seeking to compromise or steal it. Smart buildings and cities therefore require as much a security-centric approach as they do an environmentally sustainable one.

“The functioning of buildings and cities in the future will depend on how secure IoT and other connected systems are. Just think about the safety considerations if a hacker should gain access to IoT-enabled traffic lights. Being able to change the lights can spell disaster when it comes to commuters’ lives,” says Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager at Kaspersky in Africa.

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in companies, buildings, and cities embracing digital processes to improve operational systems. In particular, the infrastructure of smart cities now includes more IoT devices that link transportation networks and digital government services and businesses. This means that cyberthreats increasingly endanger the physical world and have become a serious obstacle for the digital transformation of African cities.

“Smart city cybersecurity is a significant challenge that requires comprehensive

measures. Building the information security of traditional IT networks operated by city utilities and authorities, public services, educational institutions, and other urban organisations is no different from standard corporate security practice,” says Opil.

Those planning on creating smart urban systems using IoT (from smart traffic lights to systems that collect meter readings or respond to incidents on power grids) must consider the potential information security risks at the design stage and employ dedicated IoT security solutions from trusted, reputable vendors.

“Increasingly, 5G has been used to optimise the connectivity of IoT devices as it is faster and more reliable than other cellular solutions. IoT can now cover more areas, giving previously nonnetwork devices connectivity and centralised management. This means better visibility, efficiency, and performance. But it also exposes the population to more risks as the entire system is connected. If one node is attacked, many more may be affected,” adds Opil.

5G network security will require flexibility for cities to manage multiple unknown devices with various levels of security, moving away from previous authentication models. A new, unified hybrid framework is needed to coordinate different security methods for each security layer. If devices cannot be authenticated, are misbehaving, or not adequately set, processes need to be in place to isolate them.

“If we are to embrace more sustainable, smarter, and efficient cities better suited to the connected world, data management and security must become core pillars. But understanding data to optimise utility management, improve service delivery, and to identify proactive areas to ensure growth can only be done optimally when it is protected against an evolving cyber threat landscape,” concludes Opil.

About WSP WSP is a proud Level 1 B-BBEE contributor in South Africa. For more information about WSP, please visit www.wsp.com.

About Kaspersky Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997.

Learn more at www.kaspersky.co.za.

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

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CYBER SECURITY

Online payment fraud increases by 208% amid the Black Friday season

The number of phishing attempts using shopping platforms as a lure in 2021.

The growth of phishing attacks mimicking e-payment pages was spotted in the run-up to the Black Friday period.

T

he total number of financial phishing attacks disguised as e-payment systems more than doubled from September (627,560) to October 2021 (1,935,905), indicating a 208 percent increase. This and other findings are in Kaspersky’s ‘Black Friday 2021: How to Have a Scam-Free Shopping Day’ report.

The sales season attracts the attention of shoppers and retailers; however, it is also a favourite of cybercriminals who do not hesitate to cash in on online shoppers by creating fake pages mimicking the biggest retail platforms and e-payment systems.

During the first ten months of 2021, Kaspersky products detected more than 40 million phishing attacks targeting e-commerce and e-shopping platforms, as well as banking institutions. While stores rebounded in 2021 after a difficult 18 months and shoppers returned to offline shopping, Kaspersky researchers didn’t observe the typical seasonal trends for phishing related to online shopping such as significant influx of phishing pages with

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too-good-to-be-true sale offers or growth of retail-related scam.

However, there is one notable exception.

In 2021, the total number of financial phishing attempts targeting e-payment systems more than doubled from September (627,560) to October (1,935,905) — a 208 percent increase.

Indeed, this year we have seen introduction of new payment systems in various countries due to their unmatched convenience. As consumer adoption has skyrocketed, fraudsters started to actively exploit such systems as a lure to spread malicious activity.

There also has been a rise in the number of spam letters detected by Kaspersky’s products. An active spread of spam emails with 221,745 emails containing the words ‘Black Friday’ was spotted during the month amid the sales season, from 27 October to 19 November.

Kaspersky researchers have also analysed which popular platforms were used as bait to spread phishing pages. The results showed that Amazon was consistently the

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

most popular lure used, when looking at the total number of phishing attempts using its name. For the majority of 2021, the second most popular was eBay, followed by Alibaba and Mercado Libre.

“We always witness intensified scamming activity amid the Black Friday season. Perhaps a bit more unexpected is the attention being paid to e-payment systems. This time, we discovered a huge increase, by 208 percent, in a number of attacks mimicking the most popular payment systems. Of course, every new payment application is seen by scammers as a new opportunity to potentially exploit users,” says Tatyana Shcherbakova, a security expert at Kaspersky.

“So, in order to protect your data and finances it will be a safe practice to make sure the online payment page is secure: you’ll know it is if the web page’s URL begins with HTTPS instead of the usual HTTP and an icon of a lock will also typically appear beside the URL,” adds Tatyana.

To learn more about Black Friday tricks and scams, visit Securelist.com.

To enjoy the best that Black Friday has to offer this year, be sure to follow a few safety recommendations: • Use a reliable security solution, such as Kaspersky Security Cloud, that identifies malicious attachments and blocks phishing sites — both on your computer and mobile device • Do not open attachments or click on links in emails from banks, e-payment apps, or shopping portals, particularly if the sender insists on it. It is better to go to the official website directly and log in to your account from there • Double-check the format of the URL or the spelling of the company name, as well as read reviews and check the domain’s registration data before filling out any information • Be wary of any deals that seem too good to be true — they usually are.

Learn more at www.kaspersky.co.za.

securityfocusafrica.com

PRODUCT SHOWCASE

André Botes

Jet Demolition offers a turnkey service for the mining industry The most effective means of ensuring that redundant shafts are protected from occupation by illegal miners is to seal them permanently below natural ground level (NGL), typically after filling the shaft barrel. Here is where specialist demolition contractor Jet Demolition stands to play a vital role.

A

nother challenge is that various shafts are often interconnected, such as a live shaft and redundant shafts linking together hundreds of metres below NGL. “It is thus critical to ensure that we understand the network we are operating within, so that our capping and sealing activities do not influence or adversely affect miners underground in a neighbouring shaft,” comments Jet Demolition Contracts Manager André Botes (N. Dip. Mechanical Engineering).

Its turnkey service offering for the mining industry includes backfilling shaft barrels, designing permanent caps, installing caps at a defined depth below NGL, and recording the final position and depth of caps, followed by the backfill and reinstatement of the natural material over cap tops.

Mining houses typically require such a

turnkey service for two main scenarios: Firstly, to seal the shaft permanently as a mitigating factor, thereby preventing unauthorised access by illegal miners or, secondly, to rehabilitate the mining footprint fully, rendering the area safe for public use.

The main requirement for permanent shaft sealing and capping projects is to ensure full compliance with the Mine Health and Safety Act, the provisions of the Department of Mineral Resources, the approved Environmental Management Plan, as well as any client-specific requirements.

The natural surrounding environment also has to be taken into account, paying special attention to natural water courses and stormwater management. This could mean rerouting natural water courses slightly, while ensuring there is no subsequent negative downstream effect.

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS AND CONTRIBUTORS ADVERTISER

All material used to fill shafts must be clean and uncontaminated. This is vital to ensure that no groundwater contamination will occur after sealing.

Jet Demolition pays particular attention to health and safety, especially when working over an open shaft that could extend a few kilometres underground. “It is absolutely critical to protect plant and personnel from falling,” Botes stresses.

Hence certified lifelines are installed prior to any work commencing, providing personnel with anchoring points during shaft sealing. Larger machines are also typically used for increased reach, and, in some instances, remote-controlled machines could be deployed to ensure the safety of persons.

Jet Demolition contact Email: kate@jetdemolition.co.za Web: www.jetdemolition.co.za

November 2021

PAGE WEBSITE

Accord 24 www.accord.org.za/analysis Aura 23 www.aura.services DynamicDNA 16 www.dynamicdna.co.za iFacts 12 www.ifacts.co.za/integrity-training/ or www.ifacts.co.za Infinidat 11 www.infinidat.com ISS 18 www.isssafrica.org Jet Demolition

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www.jetdemolition.co.za

Kaspersky Inc.

31, 32

www.kaspersky.co.za

Security Association of South Africa

6, IBC

www.sasecurity.co.za

Social Justice Foundation

12

www.socialjustice.co.za or www.socialjustice.org.za

Sophos 29 www.sophos.com WSP 31 www.wsp.com Zero Foundation Africa

securityfocusafrica.com

12

www.zerofoundationafrica.com

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

33

THE LAST NEWS WORD

OMICRON, SABOTAGE AND 2021 IMPACTED A “Perfect Storm” is not an inappropriate description for the events that have taken place in the weeks prior to writing this article.

F

By Peter Bagshawe ollowing the municipal election results and the establishment of committees, the effect of the changing political landscape was followed by the Rand dipping below R16/US$1; the South African Human Rights Commission hearing into the July insurrection, which revealed ineptitude; and the imposition of international travel restrictions following the identification of the Omicron Covid-19 variant locally, which has decimated the tourism industry’s bookings.

As an aside, the juxtaposition of the letters in the new variant’s name adequately describes the reaction of many to the travel restrictions internationally. Of equal concern are reports of alleged sabotage within the Eskom Group that have been linked to loadshedding, theft of spares from power stations and the acknowledgement of

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the impact of strong-arm tactics on the construction industry.

Turning away from the political side of the elections, the drop in the value of the Rand was exacerbated by the high pricing levels of Brent crude oil, with projections of R20 per litre for petrol in December being mooted.

Given that this comes into effect at midnight on 30 November, the lead into the Festive Season will be tempered by increased costs of transport impacting on inflation and holiday plans at the end of a particularly hard year domestically.

The festive season was viewed as a potential high point for the tourism and hospitality industries that have been hard hit over the past 20 months, with job losses and closures of businesses and hotels leading to extensive job losses within both industries as well as their associated supply chains. Data released

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

on the evening of 28 November 2021, quoting the South African Tourism Services Association and the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa, indicates that South Africa has lost in excess of R1 billion in bookings for the period December 2021 to March 2022 as a direct result of the international travel bans imposed on Southern Africa.

The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa via the genomic sequencing work of local epidemiologists who reported this on 24 November 2021 to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which identified it as a variant of concern. Factually, however, Omicron is not a South African variant and the first case was identified on 9 November 2021.

The World Health Organisation warned against the hasty imposition of travel restrictions and urged for a risk-based and scientific approach; this approach

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THE LAST NEWS WORD

was soundly ignored internationally. From a local perspective, the current spike in new cases (2,858 reported on 28 November) is centred in Gauteng (81 percent of new cases) where some 70 percent of new cases are the Omicron variant.

Economically, loadshedding has continued to impact nationally on production and impair workflows. The recovery of the economy and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the short term is crucially linked to the stability of the electrical grid and power supply. Despite a gradual return to working from offices, with the substantial number of employees working from home, many of whom do not have access to reliable backup or power generation facilities, represents a loss to the economy every time the power grid becomes unstable.

A multiplier on this is the increased cost of stabilisation to Eskom: estimates are that running the full fleet of 20 available open-cycle gas turbines costs in the order of R10 million per hour. Against this background, the reports of internal sabotage to Eskom’s generation capabilities are of immense concern, as are items such as the disappearance of spares valued at R1,3 billion from Tutuka Power Station. The likelihood of loss of power generation capacity due to internal actions has been supported by input from independent experts and Bureau of Economic Research. In a document

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released on 22 November, reference was made to the deliberate felling of a pylon which impacted on two coal conveyors, which could have caused the loss of generation at Lethabo Power Station. The stays on the pylon were cut with the apparent intention of causing the maximum impact to the power station and the grid for the least effort and exposure by the perpetrators to risk of discovery. Eskom Chief Executive Officer, Andre de Ruyter, has previously avoided direct reference to sabotage by employees and the pylon collapse incident is his first acknowledgement of this. The local media has referenced a 2020 report by security company Bizz Tracers, which alleged infrastructure sabotage by Eskom contractors and employees, portions of which relate to the sabotage of stations in order to earn overtime and supply spares and services at inflated costs. Eskom has instituted lifestyle audits of 383 executives and senior managers and their partners, with 34 high risk cases being referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for review and further action. Of itself, the perceived need for and conducting of the audits gives cause for concern and pause.

Pretoria Portland Cement’s recent announcements and 2021 half-year results point to a recovery of sales post hard lock down, with a substantial reduction in gross debt to R2,628 billion from the high in the previous year of R5,8 billion. This is an indicator that the

construction industry has rebounded and should be contributing healthy results.

Of concern are reports of activities of the so-called ‘construction mafia’. This grouping apparently demands a ‘protection fee’ from business owners or construction companies, typically 30 percent of the cost of an infrastructure project, or the employment of specific individuals on the construction site. If this demand is not complied with, the group retaliates by attacking the project, damaging the operations or intimidating staff. It appears that the groups are politically affiliated and may enjoy a measure of protection from prosecution, although court injunctions have, on occasions, been obtained to stop interference with project completion. Corruption at this level cannot be allowed to continue without concerted State action.

The Presidential address on Sunday evening 28 November did not impose further restrictions or increased levels of lockdown — however the Corona Command Council (CCC) will review infection levels and a further address is expected within the coming week. Levels of uncertainty are obviously high and outcomes are uncertain.

The release of suicide figures for Gauteng Province by the Member of the Executive Council for Community Safety is a stark reflection of the State of Emergency and the impact this and the Corona virus epidemic have had on society. In the 2019-2020 financial period, Gauteng recorded 1,325 suicides, an increase of 52,5 percent from the previous period’s 695 suicides. Apparent reasons given for the suicides include loss of income, financial difficulties, death of family members and domestic violence.

Stresses and living in an artificial environment are taking a toll on society at large with economic pressures playing a large role in these. Arbitrary actions by foreign governments, corruption, loadshedding and economic uncertainty are realities that cannot be avoided but simultaneously require remediation. The ability of Government to react and remediate is essential — however the timeframe for these to be acted upon is rapidly contracting.

PETER BAGSHAWE holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the former University of Rhodesia and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Witwatersrand.

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

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DIRECTORY

SECURITY ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AFRICA (SASA) ADMINISTRATION Suite 4, Blake Bester Building, 18 Mimosa Street (cnr CR Swart Road), Wilro Park, Roodepoort Suite 147, Postnet X 2, Helderkruin 1733 National Administrator: Tony Botes t: 0861 100 680 | e: tony@sasecurity.co.za c: 083 272 1373 | f: 0866 709 209 Membership, accounts & enquiries: Sharrin Naidoo t: 0861 100 680 | e: admin@sasecurity.co.za c: 083 650 4981

SASA OFFICE BEARERS

REGIONAL OFFICE BEARERS

National President: Marchél Coetzee c: 084 440 0087 e: marchelcoetzee@omegasol.com

Gauteng: Gary Tintinger c: 084 429 4245 e: gary.tintinger@cwexcellerate.com

National Chairperson: Franz Verhufen c: 082 377 0651 | e: fverhufen@thorburn.co.za

KwaZulu-Natal: Clint Phipps c: 082 498 4749 e: clint.phipps@cwexcellerate.com

National Deputy Chairperson: Louis Mkhethoni c: 082 553 7370 e: louis.mkhethoni@securitas-rsa.co.za

Western Cape: Koos van Rooyen c: 082 891 2351 | e: koos@wolfgroup.co.za

SECURITY AND RELATED ASSOCIATIONS AND ORGANISATIONS PSIRA (Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority) Eco Park, Centurion t: +27 (0)12 003 0500/1 | Independent hotline: 0800 220 918 | e: info@psira. co.za | Director: Manabela Chauke | Chairperson: T Bopela | Vice chairperson: Z Holtzman | Council members: Advocate A Wiid | Commissioner A Dramat APPISA (Association for Professional Private Investigators SA) Bertie Meyer Crescent, Minnebron, Brakpan | e: info@appelcryn.co.za | www.appelcryn. co.za | c: +27 (0)73 371 7854 / +27 (0)72 367 8207 | Chairperson: Ken Appelcryn ASIS International Johannesburg Chapter No. 155. Box 99742, Garsfontein East 0060 | t: +27 (0)11 652 2569 | www.asis155jhb.webs. com | President/chairperson: Johan Hurter | Secretary: Chris Cray ASIS International (Chapter 203: Cape Town – South African Security Professionals) President/chairperson: Yann A Mouret, CPP Secretary: Eva Nolle t: +27 (0)21 785 7093 f: +27 (0)21 785 5089 | e: info@aepn.co.za | www.asis203.org.za BAC (Business Against Crime) Box 784061, Sandton 2146 | t: +27 (0)11 883 0717 | f: +27 (0)11 883 1679 | e: info@bac.org.za CAMPROSA (Campus Protection Society of Southern Africa) President: Des Ayob | e: 27149706@nwu.ac.za Executive Secretary: Derek Huebsch | e: huebsch. derek@gmail.com | www.camprosa.co.za CISA (Cape Insurance Surveyors Association) Shahid Sonday t: +27 (0)21 402 8196 | f: +27 (0)21 419 1844 | e: shahid.sonday@saeagle.co.za | Mike Genard t: +27 (0)21 557 8414 | e: mikeg@yebo.co.za DRA (Disaster Recovery Association of Southern Africa) Box 405, Saxonwold 2132 | Chairperson: Grahame Wright | t: +27 (0)11 486 0677 | f: (011) 646 5587 | Secretary/treasurer: Charles Lourens t: +27 (0)11 639 2346 | f: +27 (0)11 834 6881 EFCMA (Electric Fencing and Components Manufacturers Association) Box 411164, Craighall 2024 | t: +27 (0)11 326 4157 | f: +27 (0)11 493 6835 | Chairperson: Cliff Cawood c: +27 (0)83 744 2159 | Deputy chairperson: John Mostert c: +27 (0)82 444 9759 | Secretary: Andre Botha c: +27 (0)83 680 8574 ESDA (Electronic Security Distributors Association) Box 17103, Benoni West 1503 | t: (011) 845 4870 | f: +27 (0)11 845 4850 | Chairperson: Leonie Mangold | Vice chairperson: David Shapiro | www.esda.org.za ESIA (Electronic Security Industry Alliance) Box 62436, Marshalltown 2107 | t: +27 (0)11 498 7468 | f: 086 570 8837 | c: 082 773 9308 | e: info@esia. co.za | www.esia.co.za FDIA (Fire Detection Installers Association) Postnet Suite 86, Private Bag X10020, Edenvale, 1610 | t: +27 (0)72 580 7318 | f: 086 518 4376 | e: fdia@fdia. co.za | www.fdia.co.za | President/chairperson: Clive Foord | Secretary: Jolene van der Westhuizen

FFETA The Fire Fighting Equipment Traders Association) Postnet Suite 86, Private Bag X10020, Edenvale 1610 | Chairperson: Belinda van der Merwe Administration manager: Rosemary Cowan | t: +27 (0)11 455 3157 | e: rosemary@saqccfire.co.za | www.ffeta.co.za FPASA (Fire Protection Association of Southern Africa) Box 15467, Impala Park 1472 | t: +27 (0)11 397 1618 | f: +27 (0)11 397 1160 | e: library@fpasa.co.za | www.fpasa.co.za | General manager: David Poxon GFA (Gate & Fence Association) Box 1338, Johannesburg 2000 | t: +27 (0)11 298 9400 | f: +27 (0)11 838 1522 | Administrator: Theresa Botha HSA (Helderberg Security Association) Box 12857, N1 City Parow 7463 | t: +27 (0)21 511 5109 | f: +27 (0)21 511 5277 | e: info@command.co.za | www.command.co.za | Chairperson: Stephen van Diggele IFE (Institution of Fire Engineers (SA) Treasurer: Andrew Greig | President: Mike Webber | Administrator: Jennifer Maritz | PO Box 1033, Houghton 2041 | t: +27 (0)11 788 4329 | f: +27 (0)11 880 6286 | e: adminstaff@ife.org.za | www.ife.org.za ISA (Insurance Surveyors Association) Box 405, Saxonwold 2132 | Chairperson: Graham Wright | t: +27 (0)11 486 0677 | Vice chairperson: Alan Ventress | Secretary: Alex dos Santos LASA (Locksmiths Association of South Africa) Box 4007, Randburg 2125 | t: +27 (0)11 782 1404 | f: +27 (0)11 782 3699 | e: lasa@global.co.za | www.lasa.co.za | President/chairperson: Alan Jurrius | Secretary: Dora Ryan NaFETI (National Firearms Education and Training Institute) Box 181067, Dalbridge 4014 | Chairperson: MS Mitten | Vice chairperson: Ken Rightford | t: +27 (0)33 345 1669 | c: +27 (0)84 659 1142 NaFTA (National Firearms Training Association of SA) Box 8723, Edenglen 1613 | National chairperson: Peter Bagshawe | t: +27 (0)11 979 1200 | f: +27 (0)11 979 1816 | e: nafta@lantic.net POLSA (Policing Association of Southern Africa) t: +27 (0)12 429 6003 | f: +27 (0)12 429 6609 | Chairperson: Anusha Govender c: +27 (0)82 655 8759 PSSPF (Private Security Sector Provident Fund) Jackson Simon c: +27 (0)72 356 6358 | e: jackson@ psspfund.co.za | www.psspfund.co.za SAESI (Southern African Emergency Services Institute) Box 613, Krugersdorp 1740 | t: +27 (0)11 660 5672 | f: +27 (0)11 660 1887 | President: DN Naidoo | Secretary: SG Moolman | e:info@saesi.com SAIA (South African Insurance Association) Box 30619, Braamfontein 2017 | Chief executive officer: Viviene Pearson | Chairperson:

Lizé Lambrechts t: +27 (0)11 726 5381 | f: +27 (0)11 726 5351 | e: info@saia.co.za SAIDSA (South African Intruder Detection Services Association) | Association House, PO Box 17103, Benoni West 1503 | t: +27 (0)11 845 4870 f: +27 (0)11 845 4850 | e: saidsa@mweb.co.za www.saidsa.co.za | Chairperson: Johan Booysen Secretary: Cheryl Ogle SAIS (South African Institute of Security) Postnet Suite 86, Private Bag X10020, Edenvale, 1610 Chairperson: Dave Dodge | Administration manager: John Baker | t: +27 (0)63 782 7642 | e: info@instituteofsecurity.co.za | www.instituteofsecurity.co.za SAN (Security Association of Namibia) Box 1926, Windhoek, Namibia | Administrator: André van Zyl | t: +264 81 304 5623 | e: adminsan@iway.na SANSEA (South African National Security Employers’ Association) Box 62436, Marshalltown 2107 | Administrators: SIA t: +27 (0)11 498 7468 | f: 086 570 8837 | e: galen@sansea.co.za SAPFED (Southern African Polygraph Federation) President: Flip Vorster | c: +27 (0)82 455 1459 | e: info@sapfed.org | Secretary: Anrich Gouws | e: admin@sapfed.org | www.sapfed.org SAQCC FIRE (South African Qualification Certification Committee) Postnet Suite 86, Private Bag X10020, Edenvale 1610 | t: +27 (0)11 455 3157 | www.saqccfire. co.za Executive Committee: Chairperson: Duncan Boyes Vice chairperson: Tom Dreyer 1475 Committee: Chairperson: Lizl Davel Vice chairperson: John Caird D&GS Committee: Chairperson: Nichola Allan; Vice chairperson: Clive Foord General Manager: Rosemary Cowan | e: rosemary@saqccfire.co.za – Address, phone and website all remain as is.

SARPA (South African Revenue Protection Association) Box 868, Ferndale 2160 | t: +27 (0)11 789 1384 | f: +27 (0)11 789 1385 | President: Naas du Preez | Secretariat: Mr J. Venter, Van der Walt & Co SIA (Security Industry Alliance) Box 62436, Marshalltown 2107 | t: +27 (0)11 498 7468 | Chief executive officer: Steve Conradie | www.securityalliance.co.za SKZNSA (Southern KwaZulu-Natal Security Association) t: +27 (0)39 315 7448 | f: +27 (0)39 315 7324 | Chairperson: Anton Verster c: +27 (0)82 371 0820 VESA (The Motor Vehicle Security Association of South Africa) Box 1468, Halfway House 1685 | t: (011) 315 3588/3655 | f: +27 (0)11 315 3617 | General manager: Adri Smit VIPPASA (VIP Protection Association of SA) Box 41669, Craighall 2024 | t: +27 (0)82 749 0063 | f: 086 625 1192 | e: info@vippasa.co.za | www.vippasa.co.za | Enquiries: Chris Rootman c: +27 (0)82 749 0063 | e: vippasa@protectour.co.za

* Every attempt has been made to keep this information up to date. If you would like to amend your organisation’s details, please email jackie @contactpub.co.za 36

SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA NOVEMBER 2021

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DRIVING COMPLIANCE in South Africa’s Private Security Industry

With a five decade legacy, SASA is the greatest advocate of industry compliance, serving as resource for its members, an educational platform for consumers of security services, and an essential link between the private security industry and government. The Security Association of South Africa (SASA) is nationally recognised by the Government, South African Police Service and all Municipalities as having members with a proven track record within the industry and a Code of Ethics by which members must abide.

SASA Gold Membership promotes compliance not only to the industry role-players, but to the end-users of security services as well. Join SASA today and find out more about how we can fight the scourge of non-compliance, promoting SASA Gold Membership as an essential requirement for all security service providers, ensuring industry excellence for the private security industry.

For more information, contact the SASA Administrator on admin@sasecurity.co.za Postal Address: Suite 147, Postnet X2 Helderkruin, 1733. Tel: 0861 100 680 Fax: 086 670 9209

www.sasecurity.co.za

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