{"id":821482,"date":"2025-04-22T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=821482"},"modified":"2025-04-22T17:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T15:52:11","slug":"the-fearless-springbok-flanker-who-now-runs-south-africas-top-security-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/821482\/the-fearless-springbok-flanker-who-now-runs-south-africas-top-security-company\/","title":{"rendered":"The fearless Springbok flanker who now runs South Africa’s top security company"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wahl Bartmann is the CEO of Fidelity, South Africa\u2019s largest private security company. Before his corporate career, he was a fearless flanker for the Natal Sharks and Springboks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wahl Justice Bartmann was born on 13 June 1963 in Florida, Gauteng. He attended primary and high school in the suburb and matriculated from Ho\u00ebrskool Florida in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a standout rugby player during his younger years and represented the South African Schools team in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1982, he enrolled at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), now known as the University of Johannesburg, and debuted for Transvaal when he was nineteen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wahl Bartmann became one of only a few players that wore the Transvaal colours at primary school, high school, under 21 and senior levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the eighties, he was such a force in the Transvaal Rugby Union that it unofficially became known as TransWahl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Transvaal Rugby Union won the Lion Cup twice, in 1986 and 1987, and played in two Currie Cup finals during the same seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a member of the 1986 Transvaal side that beat the New Zealand Cavaliers a week after he wore the World XV colours against his Transvaal side at Ellis Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He later played for Natal and captained the team 45 times. With Bartmann\u2019s help, Natal won the prestigious Currie Cup in 1990 and 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI played some of my best rugby at Natal under Ian McIntosh during the early nineties,\u201d Bartmann told Front Row Rugby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1986, Bartmann made his test debut for the Springboks against the visiting New Zealand Cavaliers at Newlands in Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After South Africa was readmitted to international rugby, he played for the Springboks against the All Blacks at Ellis Park and the Wallabies at Newlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was part of the Springbok rugby team that toured to Argentina in 1993 and to New Zealand in 1994. However, he did not play any matches on these tours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bartmann was voted South Africa’s rugby player of the year for two consecutive years, 1990 and 1991.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He played eight test matches for the Springbok team, 79 for the Sharks and 93 games for the Lions, making him one of the most capped players of all time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was known as a fearless flanker. He was tough as nails, loved by his teammates, and feared by his opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWahl Bartmann had something of Clark Kent and Superman in him,\u201d McIntosh said. \u201cOn the field, he was Superman, but off the field, he was a soft accountant-type\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wahl Bartmann joins Fidelity Services Group<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Fidelity CEO Wahl Bartmann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wahl Bartmann\u2019s father, Mick, started Springbok Patrols in 1963. He said all the children worked in the business from a young age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the holidays, including the December festive season, when everyone went on holiday, we worked,\u201d Bartmann told Jacaranda FM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Bartmann\u2019s rugby career ended, he joined the family business full-time. With a B.Juris (Law) from RAU, he was well-positioned for the security business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under his leadership as chief executive, Springbok Patrols became Fidelity Services Group, Southern Africa\u2019s largest integrated security solutions provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1999, Fidelity concluded the first black economic empowerment deal in the security industry and became known as Khulani Springbok Patrols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was later sold to Fidelity, becoming Fidelity Security Services. In 2017, he grasped the opportunity to acquire ADT Security South Africa from Tyco, forming Fidelity ADT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This acquisition allowed Fidelity ADT to provide a complete integrated security solution for its customers across the residential, commercial, and public sector markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transaction included all of ADT South Africa\u2019s residential and commercial services and operations, including the ADT Kusela guarding business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To round off the offering, Bartmann acquired the Protea Coin business in the cash-in-transit space, becoming the biggest integrated security provider in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fidelity Services Group has 58,000 staff members in over 160 points of contact and depots across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas many security companies only respond to crime incidents, Fidelity proactively works to mitigate crime in the communities in which it operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also offers a tactical helicopter support unit and a canine unit that provide additional support to our teams in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the business has grown, Bartmann still considers it a family and said he is proud of every employee’s contribution to success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his position as the chief executive of the Fidelity Services Group, Bartmann is also the President of the South African National Security Employers\u2019 Association (SANSEA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wahl Bartmann the rugby player (Courtesy of Wahl Bartmann – What a legend<\/a> and Craig Goosen)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Wahl Bartmann as Fidelity Services Group CEO<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Wahl Bartmann is the CEO of Fidelity, South Africa\u2019s largest private security company. Before his corporate career, he was a fearless flanker for the Natal Sharks and Springboks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":821484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[10181,7273,22341,15945,22340,16458],"class_list":["post-821482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-adt","tag-fidelity","tag-fidelity-security-services","tag-fidelity-services-group","tag-springbok-patrols","tag-wahl-bartmann"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821482"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821517,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821482\/revisions\/821517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}