1600 newly insourced security personnel get permanent work

1 July 2018

Today, the MMC for Public and Safety, Cllr Michael Sun, the MMC for Group Corporate and Shared Services, Cllr Ntombi Khumalo and I officially met and welcomed a few members of the 1600 newly insourced security officers to the City of Johannesburg.

Joining us, were members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), whose engagements have been invaluable in working with the multi-party government to achieve this insourcing process.

These 1600 newly insourced workers, who reported for duty today, are the first of 4000 security contract workers which the City plans to insource. The next phase of insourcing for the remaining workers will be implemented over the next two months.

The Insourcing process was highly complex, and remains one of the largest undertakings of its kind in local government. Despite the recruitment process being exclusively for those security personnel working in the City at the time of the announcement in 2017, over 35 000 applications were received.

Efforts were made to sabotage this process by those determined to protect the patronage networks of the past. These efforts included companies firing security personnel and replacing with family and friends to benefit from the insourcing process. Equally, these efforts included attempts within the City to bring into the process people who were not the intended beneficiaries.

I am pleased to say these efforts did not prevail.

After complications in this recruitment drive, a professional independent auditing firm was brought in to audit the outcome of the recruitment process and validate its accuracy. The results received this week have given us the confidence that we can proceed.

The insourcing prioritised those security contract workers who provided services to the City at the time the insourcing project was first announced during my first State of the City address.

Previously, the City outsourced its security services through over 150 contracts with service providers paying on average, R14 000 per security guard, while the guards themselves received as little as R4000 as a basic salary per month.

Under the new system, the guards themselves will receive not only receive an increased income, but will also have access to staff benefits such as:

- medical aid;

- membership to a pension fund;

- subsidised education; and

- subsidised housing.

Due to the complexities surrounding this project, the City is undertaking this process in phases so as to ensure smooth integration of those insourced.

In a process of this magnitude, there can be no question that there will be challenges. For this reason, our JMPD office in Martindale has been capacitated to receive complaints relating to the process and address them.

To the qualifying security guards yet to be insourced, I would like assure them that we will be attending to their insourcing over the course of the next phase.

As per the initial plan, we will begin a similar process for workers contracted to provide cleaning services to the City once this process has been fully completed.

The multi-party coalition government is committed to bring dignity to those who have suffered exploitation at the hands of past administrations.

Working together with all our coalition partners, and the EFF, we have shown the kind of positive change we can achieve by working together.

Working together, we have brought the dignity of fair pay, stable employment and staff benefits to these former contract workers.

We look forward to being able to announce the commencement of the intake of the remaining security personnel.

Statement issued by Cllr Herman Mashaba, Executive Mayor, City of Joburg, 1 July 2018