The Democratic Alliance (DA) has come out strongly against efforts to further restrict access to firearms for private security firms and individuals, writing that draft laws seek to punish “compliant citizens, hunters, sport shooters, collectors and security companies instead of focusing on illegal firearms and violent criminals. South Africa’s crime crisis will not be solved by weakening lawful people and lawful industries. The state must stop treating lawful partners as the problem. The criminals are the problem. Government must fix SAPS, target illegal firearms, support lawful self-defence, strengthen responsible private security, and work with communities. You cannot ask people to help save the ship while drilling holes in the hull.”

At this newspaper we second all of that.

If it were not for private security firms and lawfully armed gunowners, much of the economy would have collapsed into lawless anarchy. The business community and urban middle-class South Africa survives only because there are private security firms and private people armed with private guns protecting them. Take that away and you’ll have anarchy.

The police are now too far gone to do that. The upper echelons have been penetrated by criminal syndicates. Officers routinely commit serious and violent crimes themselves. Has anyone followed the Madlanga Commission? Or forgotten that in 2021 it was private actors who restored order to KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng? Or missed that this very week it was private expertise that helped the state ensure that the xenophobic marches went off without mass violence?

South Africa is no longer a country in which the police safeguard its citizens. And given the political leadership in charge of the police, that is not going to change. The best thing to do, therefore, is to make the greatest possible use of the private security industry, in cooperation with the state’s security services. That will moderate the extent of criminality and corruption in the police and inject the kind of professional expertise that is needed to better address crime and public disorder in the country.