Contrary to expectations, the insourcing strategy adopted by the City of Joburg in 2018 seems to have brought more security woes to infrastructure.
A total of 5 262 security officials were permanently insourced and employed, with the core in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) and other municipal entities.
The municipal entities include City Power, Johannesburg Development Agency, Johannesburg Roads Agency, Joburg Water, Metrobus, Pikitup, Joburg Theatre, Parks & Zoo and the Johannesburg Social Housing Company.
However, soon after that, and according to incident reports dating from 2018, municipal entities were under siege from robbers and burglars who stole mainly computers, cellphones, and other electrical appliances.
“The pursuit of insourcing via targeted recruitment will require a review of existing policies as well as the development of new policies relevant to the procurement and management of the insourced services within the COJ,” according to the internal insourcing status report. In March 2021, a security officer was found burnt to death inside a toilet.
Three months later, in June, at Fleurhof Agricultural Resource Centre, a guard was killed, and solar panels were stolen during an armed robbery. During the same month at Bellavista Clinic, five armed males held security on duty hostage, broke the doors and stole four desktop computers.
Sunday World understands that among the options on the table, the city may have to procure additional security services to safeguard the city’s assets.
In 2018, the metro embarked on employment-creating strategies and programmes through insourcing key services such as security and cleaning services.
In the mayoral committee report produced by the group corporate and shared services department, the total cost of targeted recruitment will only be determined once the number of claimants approved is known.
“Additional budget in the 2022/23 year will be required,” reads the report.
The report recommends that vacant posts for security staff be filled from the targeted group of 593, where security staff are required by JMPD and municipal entities.
“The city’s employment creating programmes will be managed centrally by the validation insourcing committee.”
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