Everything for the security industry
Private security is one of the most heavily regulated industries in South Africa, and the rules come from three places at once. PSiRA registers the company and every officer in it. The South African Police Service licenses every firearm. The Department of Employment and Labour governs how the people are paid and covered. Miss any one of them and the contract you were chasing is the contract you cannot lawfully service.
Start a security business
Rendering a security service for money without being registered is an offence under section 20(1)(a) of the Private Security Industry Regulation Act. Registration runs on the ePSiRA portal and turns on ten documents, an infrastructure inspection at your premises, and every director being individually registered with PSiRA at Grade B or better before the company can be considered at all. Most rejections are not about the business. They are about a suretyship form with a scratched out line on page three.
PSiRA business registration R3 490 Or accredit a training academy, R3 990Not sure this is the right one for you? Ask us first and you get a written answer within one business day.
Register and vet your officers
Every person who renders a security service for you must be registered in their own name, and section 23 of the Act is strict about who qualifies. Get this wrong and the officer is not merely untrained, they are unlawfully on your site.
Officer registration
Registration on ePSiRA for each security officer, with training grades, clearance and identity documents checked before submission.
R390 per officer →Application stuck in review?
Already lodged with PSiRA and waiting for weeks? We find what is holding it up, answer any rejection and follow it through to the certificate.
R1 490 →Guard eligibility checker
Work out whether a person can lawfully be registered as a security officer before you hire them. Free, and nothing you type leaves the page.
Check a candidate →Grades E to A explained
Which grade a patrol officer, a control room operator and a site supervisor each need, and what the training actually covers.
Read the guide →Firearms
Firearms are licensed by the South African Police Service under the Firearms Control Act, entirely separately from PSiRA. A company licence and a private licence are different animals with different renewal clocks, and a security company may only hand a firearm to an officer in its service who holds a competency certificate.
What a citizen may own
The licence sections, how many firearms each one allows, how long each lasts, and the ammunition limit almost everybody gets wrong.
Read the guide →Firearms for a security business
Section 20 business licences, the five year renewal, the firearms register you must keep, and storage and transport duties.
Read the guide →Firearm limit checker
Tell it what you already hold and it works out which section fits what you want next, and whether the law allows it at all.
Check my position →Uniforms, PPE and equipment
The kit is a compliance question before it is a shopping question. PSiRA assesses your uniform design as part of registration and refuses shades of blue and camouflage outright, so ordering stock before that decision is a good way to buy something you cannot use. Body armour, safes and protective equipment are governed by their own standards, and a firearm safe that is not SABS approved will fail an inspection whatever the invoice says.
Uniform and equipment review R890Buying kit rather than checking it? Read the equipment guide first, it sets out what has to carry a standard and what does not.
The employer side
A security company is an employer before it is anything else, and the private security sector has its own wage schedule, its own provident fund, and the same COIDA and UIF duties as everyone else. This is where operators who got PSiRA right still come unstuck.
The employer stack
Wages, the provident fund, COIDA, UIF and the records an inspector asks for, in the order a new security employer has to do them.
Read the guide →COIDA and good standing
Guarding is a higher risk class than office work, and no site will let your officers through the gate without a current letter.
R1 290 →UIF registration
Register as a UIF employer with the Department of Employment and Labour. The Department charges no registration fee.
R690 →Records and checklists you can buy once
Two of these are records the law requires you to keep: the firearms register under section 20(6) of the Firearms Control Act, and proof that protective equipment cost your officers nothing under the OHS Act. The rest are the checklists that stop an application coming back. Editable, yours to reuse, no subscription.
Firearms register
Firearm schedule with renewal dates, authorised officers with competency expiry, issue and return log, ammunition count and loss record. Required by section 20(6).
R390 →Security officer register
Every officer's PSiRA number, grade and expiry, a section 23 eligibility record each, and one watch list so nothing lapses under you.
R290 →Firearm application checklists
SAPS 517 and 271 document lists, the section chooser with the legal limits, a motivation worksheet and the safe inspection sequence.
R390 →PSiRA registration checklist
The ten documents with the traps flagged, a line by line suretyship check, the fee table and inspection preparation.
R390 →PPE issue register
Proof that protective equipment was issued at no cost to the officer, which is what regulation 2 of the General Safety Regulations requires.
R190 →Site and occurrence pack
Post instructions, occurrence book format, incident report and shift handover. The paperwork that makes a site defensible after something happens.
R290 →Free tools, no signup
Both of these run in your browser and nothing you type leaves the page.
Guard eligibility checker
Citizenship, age, criminal record and grade tested against section 23 of the Act, so you know before you make the offer.
Check a candidate →Firearm limit checker
Which licence section applies to what you want, and how many you may already be holding against the statutory caps.
Check my position →Read it first
Every one of these is free and written in plain English. If you read them and do the filing yourself, that is a good outcome.
Security guard wages 2026/27
The minimum for every grade from 1 March 2026, urban and rural, and what an officer really costs once the on costs are added.
Read the guide →Is that training academy real?
Training is the biggest cost of becoming an officer and the easiest place to lose money. How to check the academy is PSiRA accredited before you pay.
Read the guide →What PSiRA actually costs
Every fee on the 2026/27 schedule for businesses, in house registrations and individual officers, and what a refund really costs.
Read the guide →Registering a security business
The ten documents, the infrastructure inspection, what every fee actually is, and the traps that cause most rejections.
Read the guide →Registering security officers
Who may lawfully be a security officer, the grades E to A, and how to check that a person is genuinely registered.
Read the guide →Firearm licences for citizens
Competency, the licence sections, how many you may hold, renewal dates and the 200 round ammunition rule.
Read the guide →Firearms for a security business
Section 20 licences, the five year clock, the register, and importing or transporting firearms and ammunition.
Read the guide →Uniforms, PPE and equipment
What PSiRA refuses on a uniform, what has to carry a standard, and how to get the design approved before you buy stock.
Read the guide →The security employer stack
Wages, the provident fund, COIDA, UIF and the employment records that an inspection turns on.
Read the guide →Frequently asked questions
Do I need to register with PSiRA to start a security company?
Yes. Section 20(1)(a) of the Private Security Industry Regulation Act makes it an offence to render a security service for remuneration unless you are registered as a security service provider. A security business can only be registered if every director, member or partner is individually registered with PSiRA first, so the people come before the company.
Can a foreign national work as a security guard in South Africa?
No, unless they hold permanent residence. Section 23(1)(a) of the Act allows registration only for a South African citizen or a person with permanent resident status. A work visa is not enough. This is the most common reason a security employer ends up with unregistered officers on site.
How many firearms can one person legally own in South Africa?
For most people the practical ceiling is four. You may hold one licence for self-defence under section 13, and up to four for occasional hunting and sports-shooting under section 15, but only three of those if you already hold a self-defence licence, and only one of them may be a handgun. Dedicated hunters and dedicated sports persons licensed under section 16 have no fixed numerical limit, which is why serious shooters join an accredited association.
How much does PSiRA registration cost for a security business?
On the 2026/27 schedule the registration fee is R9 100, the infrastructure assessment for a new business is R2 300, and the manual of information that is compulsory with a new registration is R300. Annual fees then start at R6 500 a year for a business with 1 to 50 registered officers, charged pro rata from registration to the following April.
How often does a security company renew its firearm licences?
Every five years. Section 27, as substituted by the Firearms Control Amendment Act 28 of 2006, sets the validity of a section 20 business licence at five years for any business other than a game rancher or hunting, which get ten years. The original 2000 Act said two years and that figure is still widely repeated, so check the licence itself. Renewal must be applied for at least 90 days before expiry.
What uniform is a security company not allowed to use?
PSiRA will not accept shades of blue or camouflage on a security uniform, because a security uniform may not be confusable with the police or the defence force. Your uniform design is assessed as part of the registration application, uploaded as a JPEG showing the full uniform with logos and colours clearly visible, so it is decided before you order stock.
This page is general information about South African security industry law, not legal advice. PSiRA fees are the Authority's own and are reviewed every year on 1 April; the figures here are the 2026/27 schedule. Firearm rules are cited to the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000. Where a figure or a rule matters to a decision, check it against psira.co.za or saps.gov.za on the day.