Security guards and cleaners say they are tired of having sex for jobs and paying bribes in order to put bread on the table.
They are demanding insourcing, citing exploitation by private companies is rife, adding it needs to be halted.
Female security guards said some personnel from service providers tend to demand sex in return for them to be hired while male security guards claim they are made to pay bribes or risk falling victim to robberies since sometimes they are asked to meet certain individuals at hidden spots to pay bribes.
The men and women gathered at the Germiston Civic Centre where a council meeting was in session on Thursday. They said that was time is not on their side as July had almost come to an end.
They are demanding to be absorbed and be employed permanently by the City of Ekurhuleni, citing that they would be in a safe environment.
The personnel who conducted themselves peacefully outside the civic centre, said the metro promised to absorb them in 2018 and all they want to hear is the date of insourcing or of the advertisement of their positions.
They said, according to their database, there are about 5200 of them.
A female security guard, wanting to remain anonymous, said she has been in the security industry for some time, however, she has nothing to show that she has been working.
“Despite my experience in this industry, I still don’t have anything to show. Security companies change all the time and we are required to apply over and over again. This is frustrating because there is no job security. If we can be absorbed at least we would qualify to get benefits including medical aid since our jobs are dangerous,” she said.
She said the sex for job scandal was rife in their industry.
“The moment we are absorbed, I feel that we will be safe. For now I feel hurt and degraded, all we are asking for is to be permitted and get benefits that are vital for us,” said the emotional security guard.
She said the fact that the metro can pay the service providers means it can afford to pay them.
Another security guard concurred with her colleague, raising concern about sex for jobs.
Chantel Magwaza, the chairperson of the Top Six which is representing security guards and cleaners of Ekurhuleni Metro, told ‘The Star’ that they have been fighting for insourcing since 2018, and on Thursday had requested to meet mayor Doctor Xhakaza to discuss the matter.
“The mayor’s response is not favourable to us as security and cleaners, we are not happy. He said there are some institutional reviews that need to be tabled and according to us we know that process has passed, we are of the view that insourcing is in the hands of HR of the city to deal with it and the EMPD.
“We are waiting for them to issue adverts of the first posts for the first phase so that we can apply and do our jobs,” said Magwaza.
She said that they were aware that the city cannot hire all 5 200 (security and cleaners) of them and know that the first phase will be for senior management positions and another phase for security and cleaners.
Magwaza estimated that the first group can be for 500 security and 500 cleaner positions.
“They must absorb us and kill the middleman which is the companies who are busy with tenders, we are tired of those tenders.
“We have been sleeping here fighting for insourcing from 2018. The former mayor Mzwandile Masina did not even pay attention to us. At least now we are attended to, the political leadership is able to sit with us in boardrooms to engage and update us. We are happy that even the HR can open documents for us, that is giving us hope,” Magwaza said.
She said, updating the employees, they had made it clear that they wanted dates for insourcing.
“When one is being honest, these people are politicians they do not want to bind themselves by giving us a straight date. My view is that the mayor does not want to bind himself however when you read in between the lines, one has hope that insourcing is around the corner even though we do knot know when,” she said.
Newly appointed finance MMC Jongizizwe Dlabathi said the city has resolved to look at the funding model for the insourcing.
“Because in principle we did agree as the city that we need to enhance our internal capacity and one of the ways through which we can do that is to bring more human resources to the city,” said Dlabathi.
He said there was the issue of funding capacity for new human resources.
“What must be appreciated is the cost associated with that. It is not always about the cost, but it’s where the money is going to come from. If you speak about the current position of the city there is no provision or reserves that are immediately available to implement the view of council that we should consider increasing our internal capacity.
“In principle we do agree with the sentiment that we must bring more into the institution, however, we need to work on the modalities of getting the money to fund bringing in of more officers in the security part and the cleaners,” Dlabathi said.
He further said one of the challenges that the must take into consideration was that there were 10 security companies that were appointed late last year.
“Had we not appointed them, we could have a conversation that says what is the ratio that they must have.
“Reduce the number of security companies that we are appointing and make provisions to then appoint people as part of internal capacity. It is the same issue with the cleaners, we do have cleaning contractors… we must take a decision of scaling down the ration using cleaning contractors so that we can use that money in order to bring in permanent cleaners into the installation. We do agree that we need to build our internal capacity,” he said.
The Star