Meet 32-year-old Remind Themo and 29-year-old Nomzamo Dlomo a year after they were insourced as security personnel. Remind has picked up a little weight while Nomzamo has a glow on her face.
Both security guards, who are beneficiaries of the City’s insourcing drive, credit improvements in their lives and livelihood to the City.
Remind, a soft-spoken man, hails from Malamulele, near Giyani in Limpopo. He arrived in Joburg in 2009 and eked a living as a hawker selling ice cream before joining Mabotwane Security Company in 2015.
Nomzamo is from KwaNongoma in KwaZulu-Natal. When she landed in Joburg in 2015, she had aspirations of being a lawyer, a dream she still harbours.
A mother of two kids, Nomzamo considers herself lucky to have joined Mabotwane Security on 01 April 2017, a month before the announcement of the insourcing of security guards was made in May 2017.
Remind describes his previous working conditions as horrible, but was grateful for job security. “Thinking of where we come from, my feelings now are indescribable. We feel like genuine City employees,” he says.
He notes that most beneficiaries of the insourcing drive smile from ear to ear on the 27th of each month “because our salaries have more than doubled”, he says, adding that guards now enjoy the benefits of full-time employment, which include medical aid and pension fund.
Nomzamo is thankful to the City’s top brass for initiating insourcing. “It has brought so much dignity in our lives,” she says.
The always neat-looking Nomzamo is not resting on her laurels, she is already studying for an office admin qualification. “As a young girl growing up in KwaNongoma, I had big dreams. I know education doesn’t have an expiry date so it’s not too late to chase my childhood dream,” she says.
Remind and Nomzamo are part of the more than 3 000 private security personnel who benefitted from insourcing in the past year as part of the City’s transformational agenda Diphetogo, which aims to restructure municipal services, streamline finances and operations and maximise fruitful expenditure.
Security guards are charged with protecting the City’s infrastructure and assets as well as keeping employees in all municipal buildings safe. Both Remind and Nomzamo are devoted to their work and have vowed to never turn a blind eye to corruption or malfeasance. Written by Luyanda Lunika
