The Civilian Secretariat for the Police Service has gazetted new draft regulations for public comment, which aim to establish a new council, regulator and a host of new functions for the minister of police to protect the country’s critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South Africa’s roads, railways and electricity networks have been besieged by criminal elements, with vandals and thieves literally tearing down critical infrastructure across the country and stripping them bare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attack on vital components needed to keep the country running has resulted in untold economic damage – particularly in the freight and export sector – and exacerbated the ongoing electricity crisis in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has already tried to combat this somewhat by banning the trade of ‘scarp metal’ in the country, while state companies like Eskom have moved to secure their networks and tighten the grip on saboteurs and criminal syndicates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite these efforts, however, the country’s critical infrastructure remains vulnerable, with resources in the security sector already stretched thin. The private sector, like mobile the country’s operators, is also susceptible to theft and vandalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The draft regulations aim to tackle the crisis by giving the SAPS a framework through which to identify critical infrastructure in South Africa, categorise them by their risk profiles, and deploy added security measures to protect them from damage, theft or destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Broadly, the proposals would see the SAPS establish a seven-person Critical Infrastructure Council, which would govern over the classification of and regulations around critical infrastructure in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would also establish a National Critical Infrastructure Protection Regulator – which would support the National Police Commissioner with the task of protecting the qualifying infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critical infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the draft regulations, it will be up to the owners or controllers of the infrastructure in question to apply (through the SAPS) to have their infrastructure declared critical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The system of categorising infrastructure in a low-risk, medium-risk or high-risk category will be based on the national societal risk to the country in the event of critical infrastructure failure, disruption or destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The national societal risk describes the risk of failure, disruption or destruction of infrastructure where that infrastructure forms part of a national or global network of interdependent infrastructure, whether the infrastructure is declared as critical infrastructure or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To determine the risk inherent to specific infrastructure, the minister will have to consider the effect or impact of failure, disruption or destruction of that infrastructure in relation to the probability of it happening. This will determine the low- medium- or high-risk categorisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a successful application, the infrastructure owner or controller would get a certificate indicating declaring it as such. This would then be added to a national register of critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the proposals add layers of red tape and bureaucracy to getting critical infrastructure protected, they also set certain standards and open certain doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The regulations empower the minister to set out specific conditions and steps that must be taken to protect infrastructure based on the risk profile – including heightened physical security measures and diversion of resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, it holds owners\/controllers\/applicants accountable for the infrastructure, and requires them to meet the standards set out – failing which, they could face fines or jail time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This includes creating a security policy and security plan around the infrastructure, ensuring only qualified security personnel are hired to protect it, and establishing forms of access and egress control, among various other security features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The full draft regulations can be seen below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n