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 the largest in the world, with over 10,380 registered companies and over 2.5 million registered security guards of which 556,000 active and a further 2 million reserves; many times more than the available personnel of the South African Police Service and South African Army, combined 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 relatively 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. Others have suggested the number of high-wealth individuals in South Africa in comparison with the rest of Africa has led to the growth of the industry.