Police task force helps secure JIA

ALAN PEAT THE CREATION of a special police task force guarding the cargo area at Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) has greatly enhanced security – a prime word in the vocabulary of Guardforce International, specialists in high-security storage. The police squad has not long been appointed, and is designed to combat the criminal elements that have plagued the airport in recent years – resulting in two high-exposure thefts of very valuable cargoes in the last three years. “This team is protecting the infrastructure at the airport and the vulnerable and valuable goods,” Derek Hughes, Guardforce station manager, told FTW. “They are doing a very good job, and it’s nice to see that ACSA and the government authorities are taking the guarding of warehousing and protection of goods very seriously.” Guardforce is the only on-airport high-tech facility offering all three warehousing functions - a bond store, duty-paid store and transit sheds. It also has vaulting for very high-value goods, refrigeration storage for the likes of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals as well as a heliport and fixed wing facility. The company monitors movements of cargo on-and-off the airport – and secures both import and export consignments. “Our motto,” Hughes said, “is ‘Adding Subtracts’ – adding the element of security subtracts risk. Additionally, our prices are extremely competitive.” Volumes of valuable goods like gold, diamonds and platinum did not slow down during the traditional slack time over the Christmas period. “We remained pretty busy in these,” he said. Another commodity which has taken a lot of space in the company’s order book in recent times is cell-phones. “There has been rapid growth in the storage and movement of these products,” he said.