A familiar scene plays itself out daily whenever I visit my local 24-hour convenience store in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. Despite the early hour, there is a flurry of activity. A fleet of blue and white-striped cars parked in the lot tell me that the city’s traffic officials are also in the vicinity. The South African Police Service make an appearance – two officers furtively dart in and out of the convenience store for their discounted coffee and leave in their brightly marked white pickup truck.
And last, private security – a fleet of them. A couple of them weave through the crowds in their bulletproof vests, their handguns strapped to their cargo pants, while the rest sit in their bright vehicles across the road. They do this every morning. They never seem to be off duty, always visible, always present.
Seeing this over and over has made me reflect on what “policing” actually means in Africa, and in particular the role of private security which, in many respects, provides more of a foundational order of safety than any forms of public policing on the continent