Back to the future in South African security: from intentions to effective mechanisms

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Date: 15 August 2019
• Citation: 2007 Acta Juridica 156
• Author: Clifford Shearing
• Published date: 15 August 2019
• Pages: 156-170

Back to the future in South African

security: from intentions to effective

mechanisms

CLIFFORD SHEARING AND DON FOSTER*

University of Cape Town

I INTRODUCTION

Recently the South African Minister of Safety and Security, Charles

Nqakula, argued that local and municipal police should be thought of as

‘co-owned’ by communities.

1

To enable the realisation of this vision

Nqakula was reported to be considering ‘changes to the Police Services

Act and the laws governing municipal policing’.

2

In this report the

Minister is quoted as saying that ‘no police force, no matter how big it is,

can ever effectively deal with crime’ alone.

3

In the Sunday Times, also of 6

May 2007, the Minister is reported as arguing for the importance of

forging a closer relationship between the police and the private security

industry. The article states:

‘The government is considering a ground-breaking plan to rope in the

country’s 300,000-strong army of private security guards to help police f‌ight

crime.’

4

This theme of utilising and integrating varying sets of resources in

policing has become a familiar theme of the Minister. It has also become a

familiar, indeed a dominant, theme internationally where the key

challenge to policing is identif‌ied as the integration of multiple sets of

resources that include but are not limited to police resources.

5

In the newspaper reports just cited

6

the strategic approach the Minister

has proposed was characterised as ‘a radical plan to over-haul policing

* Clifford Shearing Ph D (Toronto), Professor of Criminology,University of Cape Town;

Don Foster Ph D (Cantab), Professor of Psychology, University of Cape Town. The assistance

of Nadia Ebrahim is gratefully acknowledged. This work is based upon research supported by

the South African Research Chair’s Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology

(DST) and National Research Foundation (NRF). Any opinions, f‌indings and conclusions or

recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and therefore the NRF

and DST do not accept any liability with regard thereto.

1

The Sunday Tribune 6 May 2007 at 1.

2

Ibid.

3

Ibid.

4

Sunday Times 6 May 2007 at 1.

5

Law Commission of Canada In Search of Security: The Future of Policing in Canada (2006).

6

Sunday Tribune (n 1); Sunday Times(n 4).

156

2007 Acta Juridica 156

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