‘In-source cleaners and security guards or we will vote you out,’ ActionSA warns
Herman Mashaba’s push for in-sourcing of employees in Tshwane follows mayor Randall Williams’ comments that the municipality could not afford to in-source everybody as this would “blow-up” the salary bill and leave little money for operations.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said this week that his party wouldn’t hesitate to withdraw from its coalition with the DA should the party decide to reverse its decision to “in-source” security officers and cleaners.
Mashaba was responding to Tshwane mayor Randall Williams’ comments last week in a council meeting that the municipality could not afford to in-source everybody as this would “blow up” the salary bill and leave little money for anything else.
“It is not up to the DA,” said Mashaba. “We are running a multi-party government and we had an agreement to in-source.”
Mashaba said ActionSA would write to Williams and the corporate and shared services MMC Kingsley Wakelin for clarity on in-sourcing and ask for details on outsourced cleaners and security officer contracts.
“You cannot in-source while you still have a contract,” he said.
“It would be an irregular expenditure.”
He said the Tshwane metro must not renew any contracts with so-called “tenderpreneurs” (private companies) but begin to in-source at the end of the contracts. “I hope that the municipality did not give long-term contracts,” he added. During his tenure as Johannesburg mayor, Mashaba in-sourced guards and cleaners despite friction with the DA, his own party at the time.
During the last local government elections, Mashaba was vocal about its stance on in-sourcing such employees in municipalities. Mashaba said his views have not changed on in-sourcing.
“We are not playing games. If ever the DA feels like they want to remake all the agreements we made with them, they must know that ActionSA will withdraw from the coalition arrangement.”
Mashaba said ActionSA would, however, understand if the metro would only in-source after existing contracts have expired. Video:
#TshwaneCouncil| @HermanMashaba speaks on ActionSA voting for the DA and what their expectations are.#TshwaneMayor pic.twitter.com/fK9sS0IBNv
— Pretoria Rekord (@RekordNewspaper) November 23, 2021
Mashaba dismissed financial constraints raised by Williams as “nonsensical”.
“When we outsource, the municipality is paying tenderpreneurs and no one can say there is no budget for security and cleaners. If the municipality is paying R6 000 to R7 000 to the companies and the companies only give R3 000 to a cleaner. We are saying, no. Rather give that money directly to the cleaner.
“We are not asking for the municipality to increase the number of employees – but they must take away the middleman.”
Rekord spoke to a security guard who works for a private company under the municipality.
Senzo Nzuzo (not his real name) said he worked for the municipality since 2013. But he was one of the unlucky officers that were not selected during the in-sourcing of over a thousand officers last year.
“Under the private companies, some of us are not getting paid for months. When we ask them, they tell us the municipality has not paid them. We also work longer hours for less money than those who are in-sourced,” he told Rekord.
“I get paid about R5 000 without any benefits. I have four children to take care of. Those who are insourced get about R11 400 but we are not even asking for that much. Maybe R7 000 – R8 000. We will be okay even with that.”
In 2019, the metro council undertook a resolution to in-source 4 000 security officers. “I was heartbroken when I was not part of phase one in-sourcing. I am part of the phase two intake and we do not know when that will happen. We were told only 1 500 would be taken in phase one. Currently, only 1 200 officers were taken after it was found that the 300 others had criminal records,” Nzuzo said.
While many still linger in hope of being in-sourced, during the State of the Capital debate last week, Williams said the municipality was facing financial constraints and could not in-source everyone when the matter of security officers was brought-up by EFF.
“We had a plethora of security companies that were supposed to have 4 000 security guards guarding our infrastructure,” said Williams.
“When we advertised to in-source them, only 1 500 applied. So all these years we paid for 4 000 security guards, but only 1 500 have been guarding the infrastructure.
“The EFF wants us to in-source all the workers even though the salary bill of the metro makes up to 50% of the operating budget despite that we have a 36% vacancy rate.
“If we in-source everybody, the salary bill would make up to 80% of the operating budget. There would be no money for [anything else].”
WATCH THE DEBATE:
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