Former Springbok taking South Africa’s biggest private security company global

Former Springbok Wahl Bartmann is set to lead Fidelity Security Group on an international expansion and towards a listing on the JSE. 

This intent comes after speculation that Bartmann was considering retirement, and that the JSE listing was a way to make his Fidelity holdings liquid. 

In response to questions from Daily Investor about this, the company flatly dismissed reports of a potential retirement. 

“Mr Bartmann is a major shareholder in the Fidelity business and has indicated that he has no intention of retiring,” Fidelity said. 

The company reiterated its exploration of a possible listing on the JSE, which has been on the cards since November 2025. 

Bartmann has turned a small family-run security business into the biggest company of its kind in South Africa over the past 30 years. 

The business remains very much in the family, with Fidelity saying that Barntmann’s children are part of the company. 

“Mr Bartmann’s children, alongside other members of the Bartmann family, are part of the Fidelity business, supporting the continuity of the organisation and its long-term succession plans,” it said. 

Fidelity explained that Bartmann plans to take Fidelity global, with expansion beyond South Africa’s borders in the pipeline. 

This would mark a new era for the business that Bartmann took over in 1997, when it was called Springbok Patrols. 

Early on, Bartmann leveraged the new Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) regulations by sealing a deal with investors. 

This set the company off on a spree of mergers to create a BEE security company in the early 2000s, which made it highly attractive to businesses seeking accreditation and points. 

BEE deals ultimately led Bartmann to Fidelity, which had launched in 1957 and specialised in cash-in-transit and cash solutions. 

The merger of Springbok and Fidelity created an integrated security provider from physical guarding through to cash-in-transit (CIT) solutions. 

Completed in 2006, the merger would not be the last for Bartmann, who continued his dealmaking spree by buying out many of Fidelity’s competitors. 

2012 saw it snap up Bidvest Protea Coin’s cash management solutions business, making Fidelity the largest CIT player in the country. 

Bartmann then went on the hunt for guarding businesses and took a particular liking to ADT South Africa, which was then owned by Tyco International.

Fidelity snapped up ADT South Africa for R2 billion in 2017, giving it 365,000 residential and commercial clients at the drop of a hat. 

In 2025, it added another 9,000 guards by snapping up SSG Holdings. 

This has made the company the largest private security provider in South Africa, with 71,000 employees across 300 locations. 

The company has expanded beyond security, with it building out vehicle and fleet tracking capabilities and specialised firefighting services.