Private security industry in South Africa

The private security industry in South Africa is an industry providing guarding, monitoring, armed reaction, escorting, investigating and other security-related services to private individuals and companies in the country. Over the years there has been tremendous growth in the private security industry, not only in South Africa, but also in the rest of the world. The private security industry in South Africa is among the largest in the world, with over 9,000 registered companies, 450,000 registered active private security guards and a further 1.5 million qualified (but inactive) guards. Many times the available personnel than the combined South African police and army. Studies have shown that South Africa had 2.57 private security personnel for every police employee. This is attributed by some to the country's high levels of crime to a lack of public funds from Parliament towards the South African Police Service (SAPS) or to an increasing trend in many countries towards government outsourcing of certain security functions.