13 Aug 2025

Fifteen security companies face licence cancellations due to failure to pay wages despite issuance of settlements and default agreements.

Minister for State President, Mr Moeti Mohwasa, who was responding to a parliamentary question on Tuesday, said P821,144.99 was owed to 171 employees. 

Reasons for failure to pay wages, Mr Mohwasa said included under quoting for services tendering and win due to the least cost model of selection, following which they would be unable to sustain the wage bill. He also said companies had experienced delayed payments by procuring entities.

He further said there was mismanagement of finances among some of the security companies as they still failed to pay employees even upon payments by procuring entities.

“This cannot be acceptable and my ministry would continue to take serious action where the law has been broken,” he said.

He noted that the ministry had facilitated payments for employees by getting companies to commit to payment plans, which had assisted employees.Where the directors failed to honour their obligations as per the payment plans, he said the process to suspend and cessation of the licence would be imposed.

However, he cautioned that cancellation of a private security service licence did not dissolve the affected companies.He said security companies as legal entities, still existed and were accountable for the accrued debts even upon their cancellation of their operational licences.

The minister further alluded that labour disputes such as payment disputes were resolved through existing disputes resolution mechanism such as negotiations, mediation and the labour courts.

The minister highlighted that the Private Security Services Act did not interfere with the process of the Industrial Court, thus proving that affected companies were duty bound to pay employees even upon their license cancellations.

Tati East legislator, Mr Tlhabologo Furniture had asked the minister to state the number of security companies whose licenses were cancelled due to failure to pay wages, coupled with reasons for the failure to pay wages by the companies.

He also asked about the total number of employees affected by the cancellation and the total amount of monies owned.

Mr Furniture further asked how the ministry intended to assist the affected employees after closing the companies to recover their wage benefits since the companies do not exist.

He also asked why the ministry did not allow the Industrial Court to apply its process of attaching and selling the companies properties to pay employees. ENDS