South Africa has one of the biggest private security forces in the world, where security guards, body guards and other protection services outnumber public police threefold.<\/p>\n
The South African Institute of Race Relations revealed in 2015, that the number of private security officers has more than tripled that of police officers since 1997.<\/p>\n
According to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Psira), there are over 1.87 million registered security officers in South Africa – 490,000 of which are classified as active.<\/p>\n
This includes people employed in security, active guarding, cash-in-transit and armed response businesses.<\/p>\n
The South African Police Service, on the other hand, has over\u00a0153,000 officers.<\/p>\n
The private security sector is often seen as a far more lucrative career path than public policing, where\u00a0police officers in South Africa earn between R105,000 and R156,000 a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Security guards fall under the sectoral determination for private security, which has a minimum wage of between R2,874 and R4,571, depending on the “grade” of employee and the area in which he or she works.<\/p>\n This gives a range of between R34,488 and R54,852 minimum per year (excluding bonuses and overtime) – however minimum wage doesn’t necessarily reflect actual salary.<\/p>\n Salary information group, PayScale puts the median security guard salary at R42,271, based on 75 reported salaries in the sector,\u00a0with some salaries reaching as high as R184,965 per year<\/p>\n Supervisors are paid a higher median of R61,445, while managers earn the highest at a median of R175,121 (going as high as R527,000), the data showed.<\/p>\n In 2014, the Sunday Tribune reported that one private security guard sometimes cost at least R220,000 a month and cost the city R3.2 million a month in total.<\/p>\n “Each bodyguard costs R71,000 a month, a rented car R22 000, and a driver R35,000,” the paper reported.<\/p>\n What the average CEO and executive earns in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This is what South Africa\u2019s best-paid rugby player earns<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n How much money petrol attendants earn in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nWhat security officers earn<\/h3>\n
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