National legislation needed to outlaw exploitative outsourcing in South African municipalities
15 December 2022
When ActionSA takes up seats in Parliament in 2024, we are going to push to introduce legislation to bring an end to the exploitative outsourcing practices in South African Municipalities. This will include compelling local governments to perform feasibility studies and financial impact assessments prior to outsourcing any core functions, such as security guards, cleaners and electricity meter readers.
This legislation will be aimed at limiting outsourcing only to instances where these services cannot be performed by municipalities themselves, or where there is legitimate reason why outsourcing would better serve the residents.
This is in line with our 2019 election manifesto, where we promised voters that in every single municipality we are voted into, we will pursue the insourcing all the workers employed by the city, subject to the feasibility thereof. It is unacceptable that after 28 years of democracy, South African workers are still subjected to middlemen who exploit them and force them to work in unacceptable working environments.
When I, alongside ActionSA Gauteng Chairperson, Bongani Baloyi, ActionSA Ekurhuleni Caucus Leader, Tlhogi Moseki, and the ActionSA region joined more than 1000 outsourced workers at the Germiston City Hall in Ekurhuleni on Thursday, we promised that we would continue to force the municipality to fully insources workers.
National legislation would assist that insourcing does not only occur in the municipalities where we are in council but also in the various municipalities across the country where workers' rights are abused through outsourcing.
Private companies should furthermore be empowered to take over abandonment factories to reignite South Africa’s manufacturing industry, while small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) should be rid of bureaucracy so they can create jobs.
Our caucus has already supported a Motion to fully insource cleaners, security guards and meter readers at the City of Ekurhuleni, and we will block any attempts by the Democratic Alliance to only implement partial insourcing
For too long, the ANC government and Cosatu have exploited our workers by not insourcing them, and by using municipalities and governments as coffers to enrich themselves instead of improving the lives of our people.
ActionSA, a party committed to Social Justice, will continue to fight for the rights of workers across South Africa to improve their lives and create a more equal South Africa.
For 28 years, South Africa’s potential has been wasted, and the rights of workers have been abused, but in 2024, voters have the chance to fix our country.
Issued by Herman Mashaba, ActionSA President, 15 November 2022
