27 Nov 2022

Security industry is facing serious reputational crisis owing to problems affecting the industry practice.

Such problems include non-payment of employees and paying employee wages below minimum wage set by the law, chairperson of Private Security Services Licensing Board, Mr Ikwatlhaeng Bagopi remarked this during the third Botswana Security and Defence Expo on Friday.

He said owing to the challenges, government had come up with the Private Securities Companies Act to effectively regulate the industry.

He said under the Act, the licensing criteria had been made robust in order to assure the community of their safety while carrying their normal, personal, social and community activities in the cyberspace and physical world.

Mr Bagopi added that the current security situation called for role players to play their role effectively, adding that no single entity could succeed on its own.

Security and Defence Expo Organiser, Mr Victor Leshomo said security industry was multi-dimensional and all members of the society faced various security risks hence the need for each person to be security cautious.

He said though cybercrime was the main concern to security, threats were often caused by oversight in physical security practices.

“I strongly believe a comprehensive approach to physical and cyber security convergence will help address the emerging threats of this new security landscape,” he said.

He said physical security ensured cyber security by limiting who had access to spaces where data was stored, adding that a strong cyber security strategy safeguarded the sensitive data that physical systems retain.

Furthermore, he said there was a need to ensure that both internal security teams and security systems providers adhered to the best practices for cyber security.

Hence, he said, the defence and security expo afforded industry players an opportunity to share ideas and share best practices.

One participant, International Kunfu and Healing Centre Botswana’s, Mr Edward Scott said that there was a need for the country to take physical security seriously.

“We can no longer put our security issues in the hands of other people,” he said, adding that thieves were not scared of the police, judiciary and lawyers, hence the only hope was for individuals to be security cautious.

The two-day expo which ended on Friday was held under the theme: Chaos Opportunities, the Need for Physical and Cybersecurity Convergence Post COVID 19 pandemic. ends