Guards accuse City of failing to pay

By Kimberly Mutandiro (GroundUp correspondence)

Protesting security employees say non-payments have become a problem since the coalition government took over, but mayor’s office says payments to security companies are up-to-date.

The City of Ekurhuleni has failed to keep its promise to pay close to 1,000 security employees working for companies contracted to the City, the Private Sector Workers Union (PSWU) has said.

About 70 workers have been protesting since last week. They are from two companies: Ngodvongodvo Security and Zabalaza Security. The protesters represent 1,000 workers who have not been paid for November and December 2022. Non-payments are becoming more common resulting in workers failing to make ends meet, they said.

Despite receiving a letter from the City on 31 January promising that they would receive payments by 3 February, the workers were back protesting at the offices during the early hours of Monday morning accusing the municipality of not keeping its word.

While money was paid out to most of them following the November protest they claim to have experienced more problems in December and January.

According to Raymond Tshamano from PSWU, both the municipality and security companies blame each other. The municipality claims not to owe the companies any money, while the companies claim they have not been paid, according to Tshamano.

The late payments started after a coalition government took over the municipality, leaving workers suspicious that this is the cause.

Workers never experienced problems during previous years, Tshamano said. “The coalition should get their house in order.”

In response to the claims, the City of Ekurhuleni MMC for Finance, Councillor Fanyana Nkosi, said the reason behind non-payment of the said employees is because they are not employed directly by the City but by the security companies.

“These security companies were paid, and were asked to address the issue with their employees,” said Nkosi.