This past Saturday, 14 September 2019, the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Group Corporate and Shared Services, Cllr Ntombi Khumalo (PhD) visited the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) headquarters in Martindale, to oversee the onboarding of 1,459 beneficiaries of the
City of Johannesburg’s security guard insourcing programme.
This was the commencement of the second phase of the insourcing of our security guards, focusing on our Municipal Entities, which now brings the total number of insourced security guards to over 4,200.
The City is proud to have restored dignity to these security guards with permanent jobs, an increase in their take-home pay by a minimum of 50% and additional benefits such as medical aid, pension and funeral cover. All this has been made possible by cutting out the middleman.
The City remains committed to insourcing, which represents a departure from the previous administrations in the City that saw over R700 million being paid annually to politically connected security companies. Each security guard earned under R4, 000 per month, while the security companies received more than R12, 000 per month per security guard.
This administration has managed to undo all of this by redirecting the lucrative profit margins of these politically connected companies to thousands of families.
The beneficiaries of phase two of our insourcing programme will be employed directly by the City as of 1 October 2019. The City has also procured the necessary uniforms and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which will be ready when they commence work.
During the finalisation of this vast process, these guards have continued with their current employers on a month-to-month basis.
The initial start date of 1 July 2019 was deferred due to technical and verification processes that still needed to be finalised. The City suspected that certain candidates made material misrepresentations during the recruitment process and investigations began on a case-by-case basis.
We are grateful for the patience shown by all beneficiaries while we embarked on this verification process.
It was essential that a fair process was followed and that those deserving would ultimately benefit from this process.
In addition, security guards who joined the City after the initial announcement of insourcing in May 2017 will be considered for employment through a separate recruitment process. The City has identified the need for additional security capacity and will open an ordinary recruitment process for more security guards. Those already working within the City will be given preference during this process.
The insourcing programme aims to bring dignity to the lives of these security guards and their families while containing the escalating costs of contracted services in the City of Johannesburg.
This move also follows the successful insourcing of nearly 2000 cleaners via a separate programme on 1 September 2019.
I would like to congratulate the newly insourced 1,459 security guards and welcome them into the City. I have no doubt that they will serve the City and our residents with pride.
I would also like to apologise to them for the total disregard that previous administrations in the City had towards them, turning a blind eye to their precarious employment status while enriching middlemen.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to our coalition partners, the IFP, ACDP, COPE, UDM and Freedom Front Plus, for their continued support in bringing dignity to those who work for the City. It is also important to recognise and sincerely thank the EFF, which has worked with us every step of the way to bring the dignity of insourcing to our security guards