Protecting The Union
- By Courtney Pedersen
- May 04, 2009
The National Union of Mineworkers is the largest recognized collective bargaining agent representing workers in the mining, construction and electrical energy industries in South Africa, and the largest affiliate of COSATU (the Congress of the South African Trade Unions) where non-racialism was a founding principle.
NUM has offices in all the South African Provinces and is internationally affiliated to the 20-million member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
Kgalema Motlanthe, the current President of South Africa, was previously the Secretary General of the NUM, whose 380,000 members are the core of the nation's economic foundation.
Johannesburg was known as ‘the city of gold’ with an economy built on gold and mining, so the very history of this country’s development finds its resources in the city.
Today, it also is famous as world producer of other valuable metals, in addition to diamonds.
NUM headquarters is located in a multi-story brick building in downtown Johannesburg, an urban area well known for its crime risks. The political nature of the union’s activities and strong relationships with the African National Congress made the need for security even more intense.
A Total Security Solution
Camsecure has designed and implemented a total security solution with the open platform of Milestone XProtect Enterprise IP video management software integrated with Paxton Access’ Net2 access control, Sagem Morpho biometric fingerprint readers and 50 Axis network cameras. AXIS 225FD vandal-resistant dome cameras are used on the street-side of the building asopposed to normal cameras that can be knocked out of place. In the parking lot, AXIS 221 day/night cameras have been installed in Videotec
Verso polycarbonate housings with cable-managed brackets so there are no cables exposed.
The parking lot entrance camera logs all the vehicle license plate numbers to keep track of the time each vehicle enters and exits. There are cameras in all the stairwells of the large building, inside and outside every door throughout the building and on the roof.
The fire escape located at the back of the building also is well covered by security cameras. NUM owns three buildings in the vicinity but has rented two of them to the Department of Correctional Services and the Johannesburg Water utility. These buildings will be added to the system at a later stage as the system grows.
“There's a security risk because it's so close to neighboring buildings where people could hop over and come down the stairwell,” said Francois Malan, technical director of Camsecure. “However, each floor is a security unit of its own with its own cameras and access control systems so although people can move up and down the central stairwell, they cannot enter the offices on each floor without assigned access to the integrated systems to allow movement within the building.”
Taking on a Challenge
And since the site is complex, the security measures of the new system has been designed to take on the challenge.
“For higher security there are cameras installed on both sides of each door, a fingerprint reader on the inside and outside of each door, as well as an emergency button,” Malan said. “There are cameras with views of the lifts as people enter each floor and the passageways. The reason for this is that if someone tries to sabotage a fingerprint reader or other equipment, knock out the glass on a door or break emergency glass, we can see who it is.
“We also have another system in place whereby if a door is left open for more than a minute, an alarm sounds and the system simultaneously same time it logs an alert in the Net2 access control system.We can see who left the door open through the Milestone video software link. Any door that is left open is a security risk and we need to know about it to correct it as soon as possible.”
One of the floors in the headquarters is the Executive Wing for the union, which is particularly sensitive.
“Our first challenge is in terms of access, we need to protect the union leadership,” said Thulani Tshozana, risk manager at NUM. “As part of the federation called COSATU, NUM is in alliance with the ruling party, the African National Congress. All the secretary generals of the ANC come from this union, so if anyone wants to harm the ANC, they must first dilute this union. It is a target. That’s why it’s so important for us to have such strict control over the access to this building and Camsecure has helped us with this.”
There were many incidences where the opposition party UDM had targeted NUM. Violence was instigated in the mines with the purpose to destabilize the union for being the backbone of the ANC and COSATU.
“They wrongfully told NUM members that NUM was blocking their access to death benefit funds, which created violent incidents, including people coming to the offices to threaten the leadership and harm them physically,” Tshozana said.
Strict access control brings greater safety and protection. Another directive is to protect the information in the offices across the country. The role of NUM is very important: the organization controls the heart of the labor that drives the nation’s economy – if there is a strike it can bring the country to its knees.
NUM also is responsible for raising the working conditions for members – protecting their health and occupations.
Biometric Assurances
“The significance of adding the biometric fingerprint readers lies in the ability to ensure that the person who goes through the doors is who they are. People can lose access control cards or they can be stolen,” Malan said. “We need to be 100 percent sure who is entering a door. That's why the video is there -- to double-check. It also can be an administrative nightmare to deal with hundreds of thousands of cards. So the fingerprint integration is more efficient and effective. It also promotes accountability.”
Tshozana said there have been problems with more cards being issued than the number of people who need them.
“During such a sensitive time in the country’s political history with people changing parties, information is of very high value,” he said. “If anyone on the site is suspected for any reason, we can type in their name to track and analyze their movements in the system.
“This is one of the highest security systems implemented,” Malan said. “If anything happens, we can have an alarm issued -- both audible and on the system. In addition to the door alarms, if someone sets off a fire alarm, it triggers an event on the system so we get an alert immediately in the Paxton Access software, which is integrated with the Milestone so we can see the video evidence of the incidents. Through rules we’ve set up in the software, we can see the list of events easily. We know who has done anything, when and where.
“Prevention is better than a cure. I believe that people will think twice before doing anything wrong now. Yet, you can still have trust with the employees through making people accountable: the cameras show when the trust has been broken. They also reassure the people who work here that they are safe.”
Paying Off
Before the upgrade, previous security systems were not doing the job needed.
“Previously, we had CCTV systems that were not effective,” Tshozana said. “It was operated from the President’s office and he would often be traveling on business, and others did not have access to the system. This new system from Camsecure is in its first phase. We are creating a completely new security plan.”
After going online in December, the system has already shown results.
“I remember one incident when someone lost a cell phone in the bathroom,” Malan said. “When he realized this 10 minutes later, he went back to retrieve it but it was gone. We were able to type his name into the Paxton Access control system, see the Milestone video link at the time when he went through that door, then see who went in after him. One of the workers hired for building renovations took the phone. We followed that guy on the system with the Axis cameras through the building into the basement where we apprehended him and got the phone back.
“This new system is very effective. The fact that it can be viewed wherever you are with network access is beneficial. Recordings are kept up to two months, so we can always find evidence. We are very pleased with the system that Camsecure designed especially for our needs.”
Every employee’s fingerprint is registered in the biometric enrollment unit that sends a code for them to the Paxton Access control. Security operators and managers can then go into the Paxton Access software to look up any employee and see their activities, or look at event lists to analyze or check any alarms or incidences.
Security officers can click on the camera icon to link up to the Milestone video and see what has occurred, or to export evidence, if needed. The Milestone IP video software also manages the Axis cameras.
“The system allows flexible searching by person, by door or camera locations, and by categories like ‘access denied’ to check a log of exceptions,” Malan said. “The reporting capacity in Paxton Access also is very effective searching by person or event.”
Managers on different floors are given individual access by floor or by specific cameras groups, relevant to their responsibilities. In the future, they can roll out the system by easily expanding the dedicated networks security solution to the regional offices throughout the country, which can be viewed locally or centrally at headquarters.
Other security plans include the installation of a metal detector at the main entrance of the headquarters.
Camsecure will link cameras with the detector through the Milestone video management software to trigger an alarm in the Milestone interface to let security a potential threat has passed through.