Wahl Bartmann’s view of his company’s latest acquisition will test many people’s fear of heights. But not this CEO or his new company colleague, John Smit. As former Springbok rugby players and Sharks teammates, nothing much frightens them.
Recently, the pair, along with colleagues, took to the sky via a 32m hydraulic ladder for a view of Joburg’s skyline during the company’s introduction of its latest fire truck — a huge vehicle known as a hydraulic platform ladder truck. It’s South Africa’s longest private fire ladder, which can reach the 10th floor of most buildings. It includes a rescue basket with a 400kg capacity.
The image captures a truth about South Africa’s security situation: the country now relies heavily on private companies to provide essential services once expected of the state.
Bartmann, as CEO of Fidelity Services Group, leads the largest private security enterprise in Southern Africa. Its scale underscores how the collapse of police and emergency capacity has turned private operators into a parallel safety system — accessible mostly to those who can pay.
South Africa’s law-and-order situation has long teetered on the verge of crisis. Murder rates remain among the highest globally. Organised crime syndicates have become more sophisticated. Kidnappings have surged, and cash-in-transit robberies test the limits of public policing. The police are understaffed, underresourced and beset by leadership instability. As the state retreats, private companies step into the breach.
Fidelity employs about 70,000 people, from armed response to cleaning and, of course, firefighting. Its growth traces back to 1963 when Bartmann’s father, Mick, founded Springbok Patrols. Before joining the business, Bartmann spent many years in professional rugby, earning eight Springbok caps along with two law degrees. “Never give up,” he says. “You’re only as good as your last game.” He insists this discipline still guides his leadership.
The company expanded through acquisitions — Protea Coin in 2015 and ADT South Africa in 2017 — building a security apparatus bigger than some provincial police departments. Fidelity’s rise cannot be separated from the state’s retreat. How did it come to dominate?
Fidelity invests heavily in armoured vehicles, advanced route planning, training and intelligence. Technology is shifting the balance. AI is playing a key role.
— CEO Wahl Bartmann
Lizette Lancaster, head of the justice & violence prevention programme at the Institute for Security Studies, says private services are “a response to low levels of trust in government services and actual service delivery failures such as inadequate response rates”. But she warns of the long-term consequences: “These services cater only for those who can afford them … deepening inequality and eroding the perceived legitimacy of the state.”
Privatisation, Lancaster says, pulls skilled people out of public institutions and normalises a two-tier safety regime — one for suburbs and corporates, the other for underresourced communities left to self-police or fall under vigilante or extortion groups.
Chad Thomas, an investigator of organised crime at IRS Forensic Investigations, says: “Pervasive crime remains the single biggest security threat to our country.” Private companies now serve as “force multipliers”, with police collaborating through intelligence and joint operations in preventing cash-in-transit heists and intervening in kidnappings with specialised firms. But he says security companies must not take advantage of this by trying to replace police functions.
Few crimes expose policing weaknesses more clearly than cash-in-transit heists. Bartmann says Fidelity invests heavily in armoured vehicles, advanced route planning, training and intelligence. Technology, he says, is shifting the balance. AI is playing a key role.
One example of privatised emergency services is Fidelity SecureFire. The company now operates private fire engines, water tankers, rapid-response units and, since October, the tallest privately owned hydraulic ladder truck in South Africa.
At the heart of Fidelity’s firefighting system is an AI tool that analyses call volumes, risk zones, weather and environmental patterns, water availability and traffic flow to predict where fires are most likely to occur. When a fire breaks out, it identifies the closest unit, auto-dispatches crews, tracks water use and pressure, and monitors the operation from its command centre.
As in his rugby days, Bartmann’s philosophy is shaped by teamwork and preparation. “I’ve got a very good team.”
Amid this privatisation, Lancaster adds a caveat: “Growing privatisation normalises the idea that government cannot provide basic services … fragmenting society and raising questions about the viability of the state itself.” Thomas says safety in wealthy suburbs cannot come at the expense of townships, informal settlements and collapsing CBDs.
The latest data shows there are 16,453 private security companies, according to the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority. As of March 2024, 608,977 people were active out of about 3-million registered with the regulator.
Fidelity’s rise reflects a country where public policing and emergency services have been hollowed out, forcing private companies to pick up the slack. Drones, AI, CCTV networks, predictive fire-mapping, armoured cash fleets, canine units and helicopters are standard in the private sector but not in the public arena.
As the country looks to the future, its stability may depend less on how high private companies can climb — even on a 32m ladder — and more on whether the state can rebuild capacity to ensure safety is not reserved only for those who can afford it.
