Expert warns of security loopholes in local malls

Security gaps in local shopping malls make them vulnerable to terror attacks like the one in Nairobi, a security expert has warned.

Schalk van der Merwe, a former high-ranking police officer and former security manager at Menlyn Park shopping centre in Pretoria, this week questioned whether local malls and the police would be able to handle a raid like the one on Westgate any better than their Kenyan counterparts did.

Van der Merwe said it was far too easy to take a firearm into local malls and the Nairobi bloodshed should be a wake-up call for improved access control. He said metal detectors should be installed and shoppers should be searched for weapons.

At least 72 people were killed in the Westgate violence, for which the Somali-based Islamic group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility.

Van der Merwe said it was unlikely that any shopping facility anywhere in the world would have been able to thwart such an attack, because the guards are taught not to engage with armed suspects.

"Mall security's policy is that of non-engagement," he said. "This is to prevent innocent shoppers being caught in a crossfire ... The fatal flaw with this policy is that it relies on the assumption that an armed group's aim is purely economical."

Van der Merwe said terror groups could not be dealt with in the same way as armed robbers. The police and security industry had to reconsider the policy of non-engagement.

But, he said, it would be foolish to think mall security guards would put their lives on the line for the meagre salaries they earned.

Menlyn Park was in the news last year when a man casually strolled into the mall and shot his former business partner at point-blank range in a restaurant. He walked out and almost reached his car before another shopper and restaurant staff caught him.