Protecting Jobs. Preserving Transformation. Promoting Fair Practice.

Welcome to Insourcing Week 2025 — a critical period for understanding the Insourcing Bill (B19–2025) and how it may reshape South Africa’s private security landscape. TAPSOSA provides essential insights, analysis, and recommendations to help members navigate potential risks and prepare for change. Together, we advocate for policies that protect jobs, businesses, and transformation.

 

What is the Insourcing Bill?

The Insourcing Bill (B19–2025), currently before Parliament, proposes that government departments and state entities directly employ workers for functions traditionally outsourced — such as security, cleaning, and maintenance.

Key points:

  • The Bill aims to reduce outsourcing and strengthen in-house capacity within the public sector.
  • It affects thousands of private security SMEs that currently provide services to the government.

While the goal is to combat corruption and promote fair employment, the Bill may unintentionally undermine small businesses, job security, and economic empowerment in the private security sector.

 

📘 Read the Bill overview and TAPSOSA’s submission summary → View Document

📘 Bill Overview and TAPSOSA submission summary

 

Risks to Members

Based on TAPSOSA’s official submission to Parliament (7 Oct 2025), the Insourcing Bill presents several critical risks for our members and the broader industry:

1. Economic & Financial Risks

Thousands of registered companies — many black-owned — depend on public-sector contracts for survival.

Loss of contracts would threaten over 600,000 security jobs, undoing decades of industry growth since 1995.

Government insourcing could inflate costs due to higher state salary packages and administrative inefficiencies.

2. Risks to SMEs & Emerging Enterprises

Many emerging security firms were established through outsourcing opportunities — a cornerstone of economic transformation.

Insourcing risks converting entrepreneurs into employees, reversing empowerment gains and eroding generational wealth.

Women- and youth-owned firms are particularly vulnerable to market exclusion.

3. Service Continuity & Compliance Risks

State-run security units may lack PSiRA oversight, compliance systems, and operational experience, leading to performance gaps.

Municipal reports reveal budget overruns and service failures in previous insourcing pilots.

 

👉Read National Report on Service Failures:

🔗 National Report on Service Failures

 

👉 Read PSiRA’s Insourcing Guidelines:

📘 PSIRA insourcing Guidelines

 

TAPSOSA Recommendations

TAPSOSA’s advocacy focuses on balance, reform, and sustainability — ensuring that anti-corruption efforts do not dismantle small enterprises or jobs.

 1. Policy Safeguards

Adopt a hybrid insourcing model, where public entities retain private partnerships under regulated frameworks.

Implement a centralised tender system under the National Treasury to ensure transparency and accountability.

 Require biannual compliance reporting from service providers to monitor fair labour practices.

Reassess the lowest-bidder principle, which often drives non-compliance and unsustainable operations.

2. Operational Steps for Members

Review your contract exposure: Identify state dependencies and plan diversification.

 Strengthen compliance: Maintain full alignment with PSiRA, COIDA, and BBBEE standards.

Collaborate strategically: Partner through TAPSOSA networks for shared tenders and cost efficiencies.

Stay engaged: Join Insourcing Week webinars to understand legal, financial, and operational implications.

 

Closing Note from Leadership

“The Insourcing Bill represents a defining moment for our industry. While TAPSOSA supports transformation and fair employment, we oppose any policy that destabilises small businesses or reverses empowerment gains. Through engagement, collaboration, and policy reform, we can build a fairer, more sustainable security sector for all.”

— TAPSOSA Leadership Team

 

💬 Join the Dialogue:

TAPSOSA — The Association of Private Security Owners of South Africa

📍 Visit: Tapsosa.co.za | ✉️ info@tapsosa.org.za

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