ABSTRACT
Accountability is an element of governance the Zwelethemba modelers recognized from the beginning as crucial to the success or failure of their project. As Martin (2012) and many others have pointed out, nonstate forms of security often end up as “club goods” that offer preferential treatment to some, while excluding and sometimes victimizing others. Martin (p. 16) concludes that the overall lack of state presence within such forms of security governance implies that they will always be insufficiently regulated. On the other hand, there is a sizable literature on African and South African public police that clearly shows that police forces have their own challenges in delivering accountable and efficient services to the public, particularly to poor members of the community (see, for example, Berg, 2005a, 2005b, 2005c). Making the state more responsible for the governance of private security may compound the problems faced by the state police.
