The City of Tshwane has apparently been paying salary invoices submitted by contractors/ labour brokers of its security guards stationed at Commando Building in Bronkhorspruit, but be that as it may, the labour brokers have in turn not been paying the security guards their salaries for two months now.
On Tuesday this week aggrieved security guards, who have stopped working due to non-payment of their salaries for two months now, told Tshwane Talks that they won’t resume their duties until they get paid.
Their jobs entail safe-guarding the Commando building in Bronkhorspruit, where City of Tshwane officials park their vehicles.
“For the last two years we have been struggling with irregular payments and of late we have gone two months without pay,” said the leader of the security guards.
“For the past two weeks we have been boycotting our duties so that the City of Tshwane would pay us, but up to now nothing has happened in this regard,” he said.
“We have long been calling for the City of Tshwane to insource us but only 1 250 of us were insourced, leaving the rest of us to suffer under labour brokers,” said the leader.
“We demand that the mayor of the City of Tshwane Cilliers Brink must address our plight urgently because we are of the opinion that the municipality has failed to pay labour brokers who must in turn pay us,” he fumed.
He said the unpaid security guards are not only workers but are voters who voted for the government which must in turn protect their rights as workers.
“Can you imagine a situation whereby you are a parent who must take care of your children but you don’t get paid for two months?” he asked rhetorically.
“We have a problem here because instead of paying us, the municipality sends cops, who are our own black brothers, to come and sort us out when we embark on strike action in demand for salary payments,” he said.
In response to a query regarding City of Tshwane’s failure to pay the security guards, MMC for Community Safety Grandi Theunissen said the following:
“I can confirm that the company under which the security guards are working submitted invoices last week and the City of Tshwane subsequently paid those salary invoices.”
Theunissen then explained that the City of Tshwane pays the labour brokers, who in turn have to pay the security guards.
“We have paid the contractor, and unfortunately do not pay individual security guards directly,” he said, apparently unaware that the security guards have not been paid for two months now even though the City of Tshwane has, according to him, been paying the salary invoices that have been submitted by the labour brokers/ contractors.
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