Mother of five Hlengiwe Ngwenya is among hundreds of security guards who have been waiting for four years for Tshwane metro to keep its promise to employ 4,000 officers.
In 2019, the municipality council adopted a resolution to directly employ 4,000 guards who were working in the metro under contracted security companies. Since then, 1,304 were employed during phase one of the project in 2019/20, but 2,696 remain outstanding.
Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the decision to proceed with hiring guards could be taken only by those running the metro.
After the first phase of the project, the political leadership treated the insourcing of guards like an abandoned promise with no budgets announced on it. This discourages hopefuls like Ngwenya, who has guarded the municipal buildings in the Bronkhorstspruit region for about 10 years.
She recounted the hardships of working for private companies, with guards sometimes going three months without pay.
“When we do not get paid our children suffer, school transport leaves them, and they go hungry. We must live on handouts from family members and yet we are working,” Ngwenya explained.
Before the announcement of insourcing by the municipality, Ngwenya was earning about R4,700 monthly without any benefits and going months without pay. This created a heavy burden for her.
She told TimesLIVE when fellow guards were employed by Tshwane, they received double their salaries with benefits. Something that she wishes for.
At the presentation of the 2023/24 budget speech on Wednesday, the guards marched to Tshwane House asking to meet mayor Cilliers Brink. The guards had done the same earlier this month, but Brink did not meet them.
Insourcing of the guards was not included in the 2023/24 financial year budget.
Chief of staff Jordan Griffiths in a letter told the guards the metro did not have money to employ them. He gave no indication of when the metro would resume with the hiring process to meet the 4,000 figure and said the resolution to hire guards was “on hold”.
Ngwenya was heartbroken by the response.
“The municipality pays millions to the private security companies and hiring us directly would cut costs for them. We hope the municipality could hear our cry; we have been waiting for years now.”
A security officer who worked for a private security company under Tshwane municipality for almost 10 years told TimesLIVE he had been fighting to get his UIF benefits after the company’s contract ended in 2022.
Senzo Nzimande (not his real name) started guarding metro buildings in 2013, earning a salary of R3,623. But when the tender won by the private company who hired him ended in early 2022, he did not get a cent in benefits, despite paying for the UIF, which reflects on his payslip seen by TimesLIVE. Nzimande and many other guards under the private company are now in a legal battle to get their money.
“Last year about 18 companies’ contracts lapsed, there are new companies hired by the metro with new people. My fear is that the municipality will forget about us, but we have proof and bank statements to prove that we were here when the insourcing was announced,” he said.
Nzimande said the guards felt used by political parties. He said during the 2021 elections ActionSA promised to fight for them, but the budgets get passed without the insourcing being included.
ActionSA president Herman Mashaba told TimesLIVE his party would speak to the new mayor about insourcing. Mashaba said his party has not abandoned the “deal breaker” rule that if DA would refuse to insource they would withdraw from the coalition government in Tshwane.
Meanwhile, the guards will have to wait another year to hear if insourcing will be included in the next budget.
“I feel the cost of insourcing is exaggerated when the DA speaks about it. We do not want a salary of R30,000. Even if we get R7,000, all we want is job security that comes with direct employment.
“If the city can employ us, there will be stability and I will be able to make better financial decisions — even deciding to further my studies. It can change our lives to be stable,” said Nzimande.
