Popgun guards up in arms

A security company with a R54-million contract from the Department of Justice is allegedly forcing its guards to work shifts of longer than 24 hours and has equipped them only with pepper-spray guns at sites at which armed guards are required.

Guards working for Mabotwane Security Services also claim that, if they refuse to work for 24 hours without a break, food or a bath, they are assaulted by their supervisors. They claim they are fired if they sleep while on duty.

The company has a R54-million, two-year contract to secure Department of Justice sites in Northern Cape and North West. Tshwane has a three-year contract with the company for armed guarding at a number of sites, including the Pilditch athletics stadium in Pretoria West, where The Times found guards armed with pepper sprays instead of firearms.

The watchdog Private Security Regulatory Authority, and the Department of Labour, have said they are investigating the company.

When approached for comment, one of the company's three directors, Enos Malatji, denied all the guards' claims.

Mabotwane's contract with the Tshwane began in August last year and expires in July 2013. Municipal spokesman Pieter de Necker confirmed that the "contract involves armed guarding".

He said the municipality "was not aware" that the guards were armed only with pepper-spray guns.

Guards at Pilditch stadium, speaking anonymously for fear of victimisation, said their lives were at risk.

"If we are accosted by armed criminals, we might be killed because if we pull out these spray guns they will open fire thinking we are pulling out real guns.

"Guards at every site are armed with these pepper-spray guns. Only those on patrol have firearms," said one.

In response, Malatji said his company had licensed firearms and complied with all contractual requirements.

"There are guarding posts that require firearms and others that do not," he said.

Pretoria police are investigating a case of assault against one of the company's supervisors, alleged to have attacked a guard because he had not shaved.

Thabo Rapelego, 25, said it was the second time in two months that he had been assaulted. He said he was slapped and punched by his supervisor last month for refusing to work for a 36-hour shift after enduring a 24-hour shift at his post at the Fountains Valley Recreational Park, Pretoria.

"I did not open a case then because they threatened to fire me and I need this job. I realised this was not going to stop when I was attacked and almost run over by a car driven by another supervisor earlier this month ," he alleged.

Police spokesman Constable Nare Setati confirmed that a case had been opened and that it had been referred to the director of public prosecutions.

Former employee Klaas Mucheku said he was assaulted by a supervisor in July last year in front of student nurses at the Odi Hospital, north of Pretoria, for putting his hands in his pockets.

"I was then taken to a bush near the local cemetery where the assault continued," he said.

Mucheku said he did not lay charges as he feared losing his job, but he was fired a month later. One company supervisor, speaking off the record, said hospital management had demanded that managers stop assaulting the guards.

Malatji denied the guards' claims, saying if the guards had been assaulted they would have reported it to the police.

He said the Odi Hospital incident was a misunderstanding between two employees and the matter was resolved internally.

Malatji said he was unaware of the long hours his employees were allegedly forced to work, and promised to investigate.