The Citizen reports that a small group of security guards, proudly insourced by former City of Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba in 2018, have been sitting without work for almost two years.

This after they were dismissed from the insourced posts almost immediately after Mashaba’s departure from the mayoral seat, for allegedly all having criminal records. Despite having been dismissed, the 75-strong group have not able to access unemployment benefits and grants because the system registers them as still being employed by the municipality. According to the guards, they were working at other government properties before they were insourced to work with the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD). The group demonstrated outside JMPD headquarters in Martindale two weeks ago, desperate for answers. The City of Joburg said in response that the insourced security guards were dismissed after failure to comply with security vetting procedures. Having been unsuccessful in an unfair dismissal application to the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (Salgbc), the guards’ representatives then filed a Labour Court review application, which is still pending. Asked to comment, the City said: “The matter is now before the Labour Court and as such, the City cannot make further comment as it is sub judice”. But, the security guards have asked why they had been taken away from jobs to be put into new roles when the City already had their credentials on record. One guard commented: “Everything has been submitted to the Chief of Police. They denied those papers. We were working here and didn’t steal anything. We didn’t do anything. They pushed us out. We just want our jobs back.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nica Richards at The Citizen

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page