JOHANNESBURG - The City of Johannesburg is finalising the insourcing of the remaining security guards and cleaning services staff in line with its May 2017 commitment to insource these services, mayor Herman Mashaba said on Sunday.
In 2018, 2800 security guards at various city departments were insourced. In this process the city was able to increase their take-home pay by a minimum of 50%, while offering them employee benefits, stable employment, and containing the city’s escalating security costs, Mashaba said in a statement.
This programme had been a major success and had seen the city take control of the critical function of guarding its own infrastructure which had suffered from theft and vandalism running into hundreds of millions of rand.
"I am pleased to announce that the City of Johannesburg is poised to deliver appointment letters to the remaining security guards employed at the time of the announcement in May 2017, to be insourced effectively on 1 July 2019," he said.
The finalisation of the programme was something to be proud of, given how it had brought dignity to the security personnel in the city, improving their lives.
Through engagements with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the programme had been successful in "moving the profit margins previously enjoyed by politically connected security companies and using this to insource security personnel".
"Indeed, some security companies were said to be major funders of these political parties. This exercise ensures that political parties and security companies do not profit at the expense of vulnerable poor people," he said.
Previously, companies were paid R12 000 for each guard provided while the guards received a meagre R4000 per month.
There was no doubt that some of these companies which had abused their security guards for many years were appointed in the past on the basis of their political connections.
The city was similarly concluding its assessment of cleaning services and was readying itself to proceed on the insourcing of cleaners.
The same principle was being applied to this phase, which ensured a better take-home pay and employment benefits, and contained the costs of escalating contractual services for ratepayers, Mashaba said.
The objective was to see cleaning services insourced effectively on July 1, 2019, and the families of around 1500 cleaners benefiting from this program. In the current times of constrained household income, families were under severe pressure to meet their cost of living.
The fact that insourcing was moving the considerable profits from a handful of politically connected companies towards achieving tangible benefits to thousands of families who would now enjoy more household income, demonstrated its success.
"The fact that it is achieved in a manner that contains the escalating costs of contracted expenses in Johannesburg is something to celebrate, as more funding can be directed to the service delivery needs of communities.
"I would like to express my appreciation to the coalition partners in Johannesburg, the DA, IFP, Cope, Freedom Front Plus, UDM, and ACDP for their support in this program. The EFF must similarly be acknowledged for working with the multi-party government in this important initiative," Mashaba said.