News24 reports that a total of 1,879 cleaners started their first day of work for the City of Johannesburg on Sunday after being in-sourced.  

Last month, the City announced its in-sourcing programme, saying the cleaners – most of whom were women – would benefit from employee benefits such as pension, medical aid, and an increased take-home salary.  Mayor Herman Mashaba observed that the cleaners previously earned R3,000 a month, while the City paid around R6,500 per cleaner to the outsource companies they worked for.  The cleaners would now take home more than R4,000 a month after deductions.  "In addition, this in-sourcing initiative will also ensure stable and predictable payment of salaries to these employees – a standard practice that was allegedly sorely missing under their previous employers," said Mashaba.  In May, the City in-sourced 939 security guards.  Mashaba said at the time more than 3,700 security guards had been moved off the books of contractors and into the employment of the City since 2018.

• Read the full original of the above report by Jenna Etheridge at News24

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