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 The paper argues that tacit and provisional acceptance, which can be withdrawn, of the technically extra-legal activities by non-state security providers, might, in the interim, be a pragmatic way to allow effective security provision by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.