Training wreck: SABC’s security ‘has let its guards down’

A special “national key points” (NKP) training allowance is at the centre of a storm brewing between security guards at the SABC and the company that employs them.

The 200 security guards’ disgruntlement began eight months ago, but is now threatening to spill over, with their union entering the fray.

The security guards say they were persuaded to pay for their training from their own pockets at the beginning of the year, but have not been paid a special hourly allowance, which they say was promised to them.

The guards, stationed at the public broadcaster in Auckland Park, are employed by a private company, Venus Africa, which is under contract to the SABC.

Guards told the Mail & Guardian that they were promised a monthly salary of R5 000 a month if they underwent the specialised NKP training, and that they completed their training to meet standards set in terms of the National Key Points Act in December 2010 and January this year.

They said they paid the fee of R1 000 each — for which they said they were also told they would be reimbursed — but that eight months later, are still being paid a basic wage of R2 525.

The guards, who asked not to be named, said they have not kept copies of their contracts and that now neither they nor their union can now extract copies from Venus Africa.

They pointed fingers at the SABC’s chief security officer, Simon Mathebula, and Hendrik Kekana of Venus Africa.

“The two main culprits who are doing us down are Simon Mathebula [chief security officer] from the SABC and Hendrik Kekana from Venus Africa,” said one of the guards, none of whom were prepared to be identified.

Kekana and Mathebula denied making any promises. Mathebula told the M&G he did indeed encourage them to do the special training, so that he “could save them their jobs”.

Mathebula said he worked for the SABC and not Venus Africa, so he was not responsible for salaries. He denied he had made any promise of salaries of R5 000 per month.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said: “The organisation does not hire security personnel directly but contracts an external company, which hires and pays the security personnel.

No Proof
Hendrik Kekana told the M&G he had “broken no law”, and there was “no proof that they were promised any increase”.

The guards have written a letter to the then acting CEO of the SABC, Robin Nicholson, asking him to sort out the problem, to which they received no response.

An SABC guard said: “All the other national key points training officers around the country, for example, Acsa [Airport Company of South Africa] and Rand Water guards are earning about R6 000.

“We forked R1 000 each from our own pockets. We did that because we were told that our monthly salaries would be increased to R5 000 for each officer. Some of our officers applied for a personal loan from their banks, just to pay for that national key point course,” one of the guards told the M&G.

Another guard said: “When the current company [Venus Africa] — at the end of February 2011, all the officers who signed the contracts with Venus were told that the rate [included] R5.50 per hour — as NKP allowance. When we started with Venus Africa on March 1 2011, everyone was happy.”

He added: “After three weeks, we were shocked to be told that hourly rate of R5.50 had changed to a daily shift rate of R5.50.”

Now it’s eight months later, and there is a standoff.

‘Threats and victimisation’
Since the guards started disputing the issue, they say have experienced “threats and victimisation” from their superiors.

“Since then some of our fellow officers were dismissed unfairly, and some are given abnormal transfers to work far from where they stay,” they said.

Meanwhile, the national treasurer of the Security Officers Civil Rights and Allied Workers Union (Socrawu), Mutshutshu Mapholisa, last week said the matter was “urgent but the SABC is not allowing us on the premises to discuss the issue”.

“There is indeed intimidation and threats against security guards,” he added.

Kanyago said he did not understand why “they have to meet at the SABC when in fact their employer is Venus Africa”.

A meeting is set for September 7 at Venus Africa in Centurion.

One of the security guards said both his children want to register for university and he did not have the registration fee: “It’s impossible to come up with registration fees for my children on a salary of R2 525.”

Kekana supplied correspondence between him and the union, as well as the rates structure for SABC guards, which showed the R5.50 to be a daily shift allowance.

This article was produced by amaBhungane, investigators of the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit initiative to enhance capacity for investigative journalism in the public interest. www.amabhungane.co.za.