Topology, scene and asymmetries in security provision in a small South African city

ABSTRACT

This paper builds on the notions of topology, scene and relationality in this special edition by highlighting asymmetries following from overdependence on private security companies (PSCs) in a settler colonial context. The locus is the JB Marks Municipality in South Africa. This municipality includes the historically white and middleclass town of Potchefstroom and the historically black township of Ikageng. These two scenes differentially address the gap left by an under-resourced state police. In Potchefstroom, PSCs, social media platforms and other infrastructures are intertwined with the sociality of daily life. In Ikageng, a ‘vigilante group’, the Peri Peri, has attempted to fill a similar gap. While reliance on racist and classist state policing has been pointed out as problematic globally, this paper suggests that reliance on non-state policing may not be any less problematic. The paper argues that tacit and provisional acceptance, which can be withdrawn, of the technically extra-legal activities by non-state security providers, might, in the interim, be a pragmatic way to allow effective security provision by non-state actors. However, tacit approval is no substitute for addressing a broader topology of inequality and insecurity through macroeconomic and spatial transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• Private security
• non-state security
• vigilantism
• settler colonialism
• pragmatism
• defunding the police

Acknowledgements

Ethics approval for this research was obtained through the North-West University Faculty of Arts Research Committee. Ethics number: N W U - 0 0 3 2 9 - 1 4 - A 7

This paper is partly based on research funded by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC)/African Peacebuilding Network (APN) individual research grant for the project entitled, ‘Transitional injustice: The spatial politics of crime in contemporary South Africa’ (2019).

I would like to thank various gatekeepers and assistants who helped me during this project. They are too many to name. I do, however, want to extend a special word of thanks to Seshupo Mosala and Mpho Motloung for their help in conducting interviews.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the online workshop on Topologies of security: Critical security studies in postcolonial and postsocialist scenes. Organised by the Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio 138: Dynamics of Security at Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.

I would like to thank two anonymous peer reviewers, Philipp Lottholz, Andrew Dwyer and Andreas Langenohl for their useful feedback on an earlier draft(s) of this paper. Your feedback has been immensely helpful.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences Research Council/African Peacebuilding Network;

Notes on contributors

Gideon van Riet

Gideon van Riet is a senior lecturer in Political Studies at North-West University in South Africa. His research interest is in critical security studies, with special interests in crime and disasters. He is the author of various peer-reviewed articles. His first monograph, titled The institutionalisation of disaster risk reduction: South Africa and neoliberal governmentality was published by Routledge in 2017. His second monograph Hegemony, Security Infrastructures and the Politics of Crime: Everyday Experiences in South Africa was also published by Routledge in October 2021.