By Desmond Pitoyi
Since the ANC came to power three decades ago, outsourcing government services has been a way of doing things, and it was a decision that has spelled disaster for local government departments. It had all the signs that it was destined for disaster.
By definition, “outsourcing is a business practice in which a company (government entity in this instance) hires a third party (a service provider) to perform services, handle operations or provide services for the company (or government entity).
“The service provider arranges for its own workers or computer systems to perform the tasks or services onsite at the hiring company’s facilities or at external locations. Outsourcing is done to focus on an entity’s resources, specifically its core competencies, thus helping it gain competitive advantages.” In South Africa, this practice has resulted in cheap labour.
Because these are state-owned entities, the taxpayer, as always, foots the bill in this maladministered fruitless, and wasteful expenditure equation.
Without a doubt, outsourcing has been come another cadre deployment exercise. It has always favoured the well-connected friends in the governing party. Remember, other political parties do have cadre deployment within their ranks. However, the ANC has been infamous for openly abusing this policy to steamroll some of the bills through the back door just because they’re the majority party.
This has led to wanton looting and hollowing out of a lot of state-owned entities. Anyways, some of the comrades have openly declared that they “didn’t join the liberation movement to be poor”. Therefore, this is their “time to eat”.
The ramifications of this illogical thinking have led to the shenanigans that we see at metros and the civil service in general.
Not so long ago, disgruntled security guards and cleaners, represented by the South African Cleaners, Security and Allied Workers Union, staged a nine-day sit-in outside the Department of Health offices following the termination of their contracts which led to dismissals.
They were contracted to various private companies across Gauteng clinics and hospitals. According to union representatives, workers had submitted a memorandum of demands calling for the absorption of all security and cleaning staff into the department on 22 March 2024.
These demands also included problems with the issue of outsourcing, the bane of the workers’ existence. Female cleaners even went to the extreme – going naked in public – because they felt their pleas fell on deaf ears or were simply ignored.
The department showed workers the middle finger, spat on their faces and ignored calls of consultative engagement. It only responded by stating that it’s only willing to enter into engagements with the gatvol workers after 26 April 2024. That date came and went, and the workers’ demands are still unattended to.
Political parties like ActionSA feel that the ANC-adopted policy (of outsourcing) has failed black workers. The tripartite alliance (comprising the ANC, South African Communist Party, and Cosatu) has for three decades exploited workers by not insourcing services. This has turned local municipalities into cash cows for self-enrichment rather than improving workers’ living conditions.
As part of its manifesto for the upcoming elections, ActionSA, as a party that purports to work for social justice, has vowed to continue fighting for the rights of workers across South Africa to improve their lives and create a fair and more egalitarian society.
In 2017, during Herman Mashaba’s tenure as executive mayor of the City of Joburg, a total of 4 185 security guards and 1 879 cleaners were absorbed by the city through its insourcing policy which became an integral part of the metro’s administration.
The spin-offs thereof were that hardworking men and women, for the first time, enjoyed the security of permanent employment, dignified working conditions with benefits, and healthy retirement packages.
Mashaba made sure that the a lot of the services rendered by the city were insourced, “using staff or other resources within its framework”.
On the other hand, “Insourcing is used to describe a task or function that an entity could have outsourced to a third party. It provides more control over decision-making regarding some elements of the task at hand to be handled by experienced employees who understand the company ethos and its mandate.”
As predicted, when the ANC was voted back into power it put a stop to what was then a well-oiled machine that ran smoothly. They scrapped policy that Mashaba had implemented. As to why it did that, your guess is as good as mine.
The Department of Health and other departments should take a leaf from this and begin to listen to the workers’ pleas and take them into confidence by engaging them on what’s to be done, going forward.
Furthermore, a moratorium should be placed on the hiring of new workers until the matter with the current workers regarding outsourcing has been resolved
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