Leo Zeilig, Johannesburg
Brian Mfisa starts work at 6am each day for the international security firm Chubb. He guards a large house in the wealthy suburb of Melrose in Johannesburg. Brian sits in a small wooden box — a "guard hut" — that is dwarfed by the walls of the house. He works 12-hour shifts and is paid 1600 rand (A$345) per month. Last month he was shot through the arm by a man attempting to break into the house. The next day he was back at work. Brian is still refused permission to go to the toilet while on duty and is forced to use a plastic bucket in the hut.
According to recent research, there are almost 300,000 registered guards in South Africa, employed by 4200 businesses. There are far more private security forces than state police officers. Private security has mushroomed since the end of apartheid, reflecting both the dramatic divisions of wealth in the country and the outsourcing of state functions to the private sector.
This is big business in South Africa, with an annual turnover in excess of R14 billion (A$3 billion). There are approximately 2500 private security firms in South Africa, although the industry is dominated by a few multinational giants. One of the biggest security firms is Chubb — a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation, based in the US.
The working conditions for this army of private security officers are notoriously bad. According to a survey in 2004, almost 60% of private sector security guards earn less than R1500 (A$320) a month, while over 70% work more than 45 hours a week. As the workers' placards explain: "We guard your millions and billions, but you pay us peanuts." Even with these conditions, thousands search for work as security guards. Unemployment in South Africa is estimated to be higher than 40%.
Since March 23, security guards have been on strike. Talks began in October with the main employers. The guards are represented by more than 30 unions, though by far the largest is the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU). The unions were initially demanding a wage increase of 11%. But on April 1, five employers struck a deal with 16 unions for an 8.3% increase.
However SATAWU held firm and refused to accept the deal, calling an indefinite strike on April 13. The strike has continued with violent clashes between strikers and scabs and police. On April 19, a security guard was shot dead by strikers in Durban. In Cape Town on April 20, security guards levelled the homes of strike breakers in the large township of Khayelitsha. On April 20, police fired rubber bullets at 600 strikers who were attempting to reach a demonstration in Johannesburg.
Big business media attention has focused on "violence". The April 21 Mail and Guardian was typical in condemning the security guards: "It is not a case of heroic class struggle ... against repressive capitalist bosses and their state lackeys. Workers now have a government they chose, and a worker-friendly labour dispensation."
SATAWU general-secretary Randell Howard countered these attacks, telling the April 21 Mail and Guardian: "As long as employers continue to use scabs, there will always be violence. The blood of replacement labour is on the hands of employers."
Demonstrations of striking workers have been outlawed. Since April 8, metropolitan councils in Pretoria and in the Western Cape have refused permission for union marches, forcing the guards to picket the offices of security companies. Still the strikers are unbowed and the strike is set to escalate.
[Leo Zeilig is a socialist and activist based in South Africa.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 3, 2006.
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