Disaster management comes down to preparedness and the capacity to anticipate, respond and recover from national disaster on a social and economic scale.
South Africa’s advantage during the current Covid-19 national disaster is a robust private security industry tasked with crime prevention at community lever and which, under national laws and emergency plans is tasked with enabling the management of public health emergencies and compliance from all members of the community.
News reports over the first few days of South Africa’s 21-day lock down laws saw a number of public displays of non-compliance from both individuals and communities, including South Africa’s private residential gated neighbourhoods, as reported by this BusinessTech article No jogging or walking dogs applies to security estates and complexes: SAPS which saw the SAPS clarifying that South Africa’s lock down regulations apply across the board, and called on estate and complex managers to enforce them.
Am I Going Crazy?
It’s no surprise that times of national disaster bring a range of emotional reactions from individuals; none more so than gated communities where residents may set themselves apart from the general populace and disregard the law within their own community’s perimeters.
While these may be emotional reactions in a normal person to what is an abnormal event, such as Covid-19 and its 21 day lockdown laws, understanding your personal reactions and overall responsibility to your neighbours and your community goes a long way in supporting and assisting the security personal tasked to protect your homes and residences.
While each person’s experience will be different, there are a number of common responses to be aware of and which to navigate your way through.
Emotional:
You may initially feel disbelief about the situation. Things will feel ‘unreal’ and you may feel numb, detached or simply ‘out there’ and unable to connect to what is really going on.
Fear:
Our personal safety may feel threatened, as well as our economic security when we are unable to see an ‘end’ to the disaster. We may dig up a lot of unrelated fears along with it too.
Anger:
We look for someone to blame, such as ‘who caused it’ and ‘who allowed it to happen’. We may rant against the injustice and senselessness of it all and remain generally irritable and reactive.
Grief:
We start to mourn the loss, both of human lives and material security. We start to realise the loss of both safety and normalcy in our lives.
Shame:
We feel shame at our helplessness to manage the situation, for our debilitating thoughts, poor concentration at work or for having reacted so emotionally at first. We berate ourselves for not behaving as we would like to i.e. springing into action or finding an immediate solution.
Poor Responses:
Unable to find a solution ourselves, some of us will try to escape through over medication or excessive use of alcohol or drugs or taking our aggressive emotions out on someone else.
Stop! Look! Adjust!
It is at this point that you need to reconnect with your inner management system and comply with the South African governments directives so you can best support yourself and your community during this time.
We are all experiencing the risk of the Covid-19 disaster. Your compliance to government health regulations will ensure the police and the private security industry can continue to keep the nation safe, secure and focussed on the best outcome available for all of us and we ask you to work with your community, rather than against it at this time.
Premier Security and the greater private security industry not only provides secure, automated security access management to gated communities; we also support the following private security services so essential in managing your business and social lives:
Cash-in-transit and cash-management services
Guarding of trading and business interests of corporates that invest on the continent
Close-protection services for properties, transport routes and destinations
Crime prevention at airports, taxi ranks, harbours and border crossings
Armed response services for thousands of households, schools and business parks
Crowd management; retail risk, logistics and infrastructure security
Protection for workers in emergency services and government
As South Africa strengthens and maintains its surveillance and response capabilities at local, intermediate and national levels during the Covid-19 national disaster, the private security sector is your personal support in disaster management which upholds your individual rights to health and safety.
Need advice on securing your home, business or community? Speak to a community manager now.
