The Gauteng health department will conduct an inquiry into allegations that security companies guarding its facilities continue to not pay over pension contributions deducted from workers’ salaries.
Among the companies under scrutiny is Phiriphiri Security Services, whose workers claim they have been left jobless and without full pension benefits despite years of deductions from their salaries. Maxwell Makwarela owns the company.
Phiriphiri Security Services is among companies previously implicated in the Madlanga commission as beneficiaries in the controversial R2.9bn Tshwane Metro Police Department security tender that has faced public scrutiny.
About 60 guards employed by the company in Tshwane told Sowetan their services were recently terminated, with some alleging they discovered only afterwards that pension contributions and UIF registrations had not been properly processed.
While guards alleged the contract had been terminated, the City of Tshwane denied cancelling it.
“There is only one contract the city had with that supplier, TMPD02-2016/17, for security services. The contract expired on 28 February 2025 but has since been extended on a month-to-month basis. It is therefore incorrect to state that the City of Tshwane cancelled the contract,” said city spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.
Mashigo said the contract extensions between July 2025 and June 2026 amounted to R106.5m.
The Private Security Sector Provident Fund (PSSPF) confirmed the company is currently non-compliant and in arrears.
“Phiriphiri Security Services is currently non-compliant in terms of its statutory obligation to pay over provident fund contributions on behalf of its employees. The last schedule was received in March 2024, and the last contribution received was in June 2024,” the fund said.
Guards claim at least 40 of them were never registered with labour or the provident fund despite deductions being made monthly.
One employee said nearly R15,000 was deducted from his salary over four years, but his provident fund reflected only R1,390 from the PSSPF. He later approached the Office of the Pension Funds Adjudicator, which ordered the company in January 2025 to pay over R20,000 in outstanding contributions and interest.
“The employer is ordered to pay the fund [of] R20,085.78, with interest of R4,408.84 in respect of outstanding contributions,” part of the determination read.
“I have no job or pension. Rent is due, children need to eat and go to school,” the guard told Sowetan.
Another employee claimed he discovered through the fund that he had never been registered.
“All these four years ... I have just been working for the salary. The deductions were not going anywhere. I also discovered I am not even registered at Labour for UIF,” he said.
Guards further alleged they had received contracts in January expected to run until August, before being dismissed without notice.
Although Tshwane confirmed the contract related to TMPD services, guards said they worked at multiple municipal sites, including dumpsites, clinics and municipal offices.
Gauteng health department spokesperson Steve Mabona said the department was previously unaware of the allegations of non-payment of the worker contribution to fund administrators.
“The department will conduct an inquiry with all affected providers for necessary action to be carried out accordingly,” Mabona said.
Meanwhile, the provident fund said debt collection measures were underway to recover outstanding contributions owed to workers.
Phiriphiri Security Services had not responded to media queries at the time of publication.
Meanwhile, dismissed Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital guards picketed outside the facility on Thursday morning, calling on Calvin and Family Group to pay their pensions and salary hikes owed to them.
Sowetan has previously written about the plight of these workers regarding unpaid pensions by owner Calvin Mathibela.
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