With South Africa facing persistently high levels of house break-ins and home robberies, Trellidor highlights the fact that there are currently no minimum testing standards for home security barriers, ensuring South Africans are truly kept safe in their homes.
Recent crime statistics highlight that 1.5 million incidents of house break-ins were recorded in the 2024/25 period alone, affecting more than a million households. Despite this, there is currently no minimum safety or strength testing requirement in the South African National Standards (SANS) or Building Codes for home security barriers such as burglar bars, security gates, and locks.
“South Africans are investing heavily in home security, but there is no benchmark or mandated test to ensure these barriers can actually withstand attack,” says Damian Judge, Sales and Marketing Executive at Trellidor. “This leaves consumers vulnerable – they may believe they are safe, but their security barriers may not be strong enough to resist forced entry.”
By contrast, balustrades are required to undergo strength testing, even though both products are ultimately designed to save lives. Yet for burglar bars, security gates, and locks, there are no compulsory tests for:
- Impact resistance or strength testing of barriers
- Pull-out or attack testing of locks and mechanisms
This regulatory gap creates inconsistency in safety standards, leaving homeowners to make decisions without the assurance that their investment in security will deliver real protection.
“As a company committed to safeguarding South African households, Trellidor has invested extensively in research, rigorous product testing, and innovation to establish its own stringent performance benchmarks. This commitment is further reinforced by achieving international certification from the UK’s Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB), part of BRE Global,” added Judge. “However, without an industry-wide minimum standard, many products on the market risk offering consumers a false sense of security.”
Trellidor is calling on regulators, industry stakeholders, and consumer advocacy groups to work together towards establishing minimum national standards for home security barriers, just as has been done in other categories of building safety.
“In a country where crime is a daily reality, we cannot afford to leave such a critical area unregulated,” concludes Judge. “Lives depend on it.”