By Mel Le.
Johannesburg, South Africa – April 2026: Claudinne Thomas, 42, grew up across Gauteng’s townships Soweto-born, raised in communities that offered love and solidarity alongside exposure to poverty and violence. Three decades later, she has built two security companies and become one of the few women to crack executive ranks in a sector where female leadership remains rare.
Her second venture, Gauteng Tactical Unit (GTU), formalized in 2025, operates as a consortium: aggregating multiple security operators under shared infrastructure and standards to deliver professional protection in the same townships she was raised in areas historically priced out of private security.
“My team and I know these streets,” Thomas says. “We live here. Our families live here. We know the neighbours, the spaza shops, the places of worship. I’m not an outsider who reads about high-risk areas in Gauteng. I come from areas like that. That understanding is built into how GTU operates.”
From Administration to Managing Director
Thomas spent a decade climbing from administrative roles to managing director level at a previous security firm. Her departure in 2023 followed a sexual harassment dispute. She launched Imbokodo Security Services immediately after, building from scratch to serve residential, corporate, and VIP clients nationwide.
GTU represents her expansion into collaborative operations, recruiting vetted competitors nationwide in exchange for adherence to unified PSIRA-compliant standards.
“Every company we bring on board extends our reach without duplicating costs,” Thomas says. “The goal is national coverage where your service follows you across provinces, not just across suburb boundaries.”
Political Context
South Africa’s government has criticized private security for serving wealthy enclaves while townships face violent crime with minimal protection. GTU’s accessible-rate model challenges assumptions that professional response requires premium pricing.
Thomas’s decade-long relationships with SAPS and community policing forums rooted in her township networks enable GTU to coordinate with formal law enforcement rather than replace it. That distinction has secured police cooperation in pilot areas.
“The communities we serve know me,” Thomas says. “That trust was earned long before GTU existed.”
Dual-Track Operations
Imbokodo handles premium residential, corporate, and VIP contracts at market rates. GTU coordinates broader capacity, offers more affordable access, and volunteers resources for community-level protection in the areas Thomas calls home.
The structure lets her compete across market segments: Imbokodo delivers high-end service; GTU scales impact through consortium coordination and embedded volunteer capacity.
Operational Standards
GTU runs intelligence-led operations, rapid response, static protection, mobile patrols, specialized interventions. All operators complete PSIRA compliance, background clearance, and continuous training in de-escalation and legal use of force.
Thomas personally oversees standards. “The idea is not to replace law enforcement but to strengthen the ecosystem around it,” she says. “Private security, community structures, and SAPS all have roles to play.”
Talent Development
Thomas recruits from community organizations and crisis support backgrounds where judgment under pressure is already proven often from the same townships she grew up in then structures mentorship to build coordination and decision-making skills.
“For decades the assumption has been that security is about physical force,” she says. “But modern protection requires leadership capabilities that exist across our communities and are often overlooked.”
With women holding fewer than 5% of executive roles in South African security, Thomas’s recruitment explicitly targets female operators. “I was told women don’t belong in control rooms making life-or-death calls,” she recalls. “Now I’m building a company where that assumption dies in the same communities that raised me.”
Sector Backdrop
Private security now employs more personnel than South Africa’s police and generates R200 billion annually. Thomas’s expansion comes as the sector faces regulatory pressure, rising costs, and community demand for faster response.
Industry observers note that collaborative consortium models may become essential for adaptation. Thomas’s dual-structure approach, premium service plus accessible coordination, offers one template.
The Driver
For Thomas, a gender-based violence survivor, the mission is personal. “When you’ve experienced vulnerability firsthand, protection becomes more than a service,” she says. “It becomes a responsibility.”
That responsibility extends to volunteering resources alongside commercial contracts embedding GTU within community social fabric to build trust and operational intelligence in the townships that shaped her.