Car guard

Car guarding can occur in any area where a lack of formal employment opportunities gives rise to an informal economy.

Individuals unable to find formal employment turn to car guarding as an alternative source of income.

Except for the occasional article in the daily press, very little research has been done on the car guard industry in South Africa, and even less in other countries.

[2] In the late 1990s and early 2000s, self-employed car guards began to expand into sporting events, concerts, and other venues on an ad hoc basis.

[3] The majority of car guards are black or coloured men, with a median age of late twenties to early thirties.

However, they earn lower wages on average than low-income jobs in the formal sector (e.g. domestic workers or waiters).

In 2009, there was an amendment to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act that added car guards to the section as it pertained to private security and established a minimum wage in Pretoria and Johannesburg of R2,519 per month.

[8] The law provides for a maximum fee that a sayes may charge, to be set by the Ministry of Local Development, and imposes fines for violations.

[9] Additional legislation to further regulate parking practices, with the potential to eliminate the sayes profession entirely, was proposed in 2020.

[10] In Mozambique, car guards work in groups to prevent thieves from stealing items such as mirrors from parked vehicles.