City of Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba has declared the City’s security guard insourcing drive a success. This comes after a newly insourced security guard foiled an attempted robbery at the Freedom Park Clinic in Soweto, last week.
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Eight men, four of whom were armed, broke into the clinic in the early hours of Wednesday morning allegedly to steal 12 geysers.
However, the robbery was interrupted after the security guard managed to alert police who rushed to the scene as the robbers were busy dismantling some of the geysers. As a result, no geysers were stolen.
During the ordeal, the security guard was tied up and held at gunpoint but was able to alert armed response to the scene. The arrival of armed response at the clinic resulted in the burglars being prevented from getting away with the geysers.
“When we began the insourcing programme of security guards, our focus was to provide them with dignity through permanent employment with a decent salary and benefits. This has also empowered the City to directly manage the security of City facilities and assets.
“The actions of our brave security guard has demonstrated the value of investing in people who, in turn, protect the residents of our city and important public infrastructure such as this clinic. The actions of our security guard at the Freedom Park Clinic leaves me proud of what is being achieved through the City’s insourcing programme,” said Mashaba.
Mashaba lamented the financial losses suffered by the City over the years as a result of infrastructure theft and damage.
He said: “The brave actions of our newly insourced security guard has saved our residents the costs that would have resulted from this infrastructure theft. The residents of the surrounding communities will continue to derive health care from this clinic with minimal disruption.
“Every year the City of Johannesburg has suffered hundreds of millions of rands in stolen or vandalised infrastructure. The cost of this criminal activity has traditionally been borne upon our residents, both in terms of the cost of replacement and the disruption of services.”
In June, the City insourced 1600 security guards from a total complement of 4000 guards.
