Cape Town - The EFF is pushing for the abolishment of tenders and to allow the government to employ thousands of people who are hired by private companies in departments and State-Owned Entities (SOEs).
The EFF’s leader, Julius Malema, on Tuesday told Parliament the State could save billions of rand from this process.
He said in the City of Johannesburg, Mayor Herman Mashaba, of the DA, had insourced 4000 security guards and more than 1000 cleaners.
During outsourcing, Malema said, Joburg was spending R571 million, but after a decision to insource workers they reduced their spend to R461m - and thus saved over R100m.
He maintained that this would work and that his party was now pushing for the government to implement it nationally and in the provinces.
“It is insourcing that will save us jobs. If we insource we save money, we create jobs and our economy will grow,” said Malema, adding that SOEs such as Eskom, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and Denel had to take a similar direction.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/Julius_S_Malema?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Julius_S_Malemaled the National Assembly debate on Building state capacity through insourcing of government and all state-owned companies’ workers as enshrined in the 7 cardinal pillars of the EFF. pic.twitter.com/tEwMAyWOjm
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica)
However, other opposition parties disagreed, saying the State would have no money to employ more people.
Wouter Wessels, of the Freedom Front Plus, said the public sector wage bill was already high. He said there was no need to insource because the State would not be able to afford more costs.
Lusizo Makhubela-Mashele of the ANC said the National Development Plan had already identified challenges facing the State.
She insisted that insourcing could be one of the measures taken to improve the capacity of the State.
Statistics South Africa recently revealed that unemployment currently sat at 29%.
Although Malema explained how the DA had saved money in Johannesburg, Cilliers Brink, from that party, said it was not possible that insourcing would benefit the country.
He said they did not want an escalating public sector wage bill.