City of Joburg welcomes 1‚600 insourced security officers

The City of Johannesburg has welcomed 1‚600 newly in-sourced security officers into its labour force.

This was announced by Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba on Sunday as the city begins a new financial year.

The 1‚600 guards who reported for duty on Sunday are the first of 4‚000 security contract workers who the city plans to in-source. The next phase of in-sourcing for the remaining workers will be implemented over the next two months.

Mashaba said 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 in-sourcing 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‚” Mashaba said.

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 R4‚000 as a basic salary per month.

Under the new system‚ the guards themselves will 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.

“To the qualifying security guards yet to be in-sourced‚ I would like to assure them that we will be attending to their in-sourcing 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‚” Mashaba said.