Mpumalanga Safety, Security and Liaison has come hard on the provincial security managers employed in all the provincial departments for not ensuring that security companies contracted by government were paid in time.
Shongwe held a special meeting with the officials today where he gave them a tongue lashing for not doing their job.
He said the non-payment of the security companies contracted by the provincial government impacted on the security guards because they could not receive their salaries in time.
He said security guards flocked into his office to report their employers who did not pay them their salaries. He said the security companies blamed it on government for the late payments.
Shongwe said he had information that some departments did not pay the security companies for up to six months.
"If you do not pay them, how are they going to pay their guards" he aske?
If you see the security guards protecting government properties, do you ask yourselves where do they get money for the living Let us be humane enough to understand that these people have needs, have families to feed?
"The next thing these people will do is to commit crime and be involved in crime. We can blame or not blame them, but it is unfair what we are doing to them," said MEC Shongwe.
He said he would propose to the provincial Cabinet that the budget for the security companies be centralised to his department as they were many challenges.
"Safety and security cannot be a 'by the way' thing, fighting crime and corruption is amongst the five government priorities, we must take it seriously by budgeting properly and paying the service providers in time," said MEC Shongwe.
He added that he was not happy with the security arrangement for accessing the Mpumalanga Provincial Government Complex in Nelspruit that it was not user-friendly to the people who voted government into power.
Visitors park their vehicles outside the complex and are issued with name tags with their faces and identification numbers. They however have to walk a few metres because accessing the provincial administration offices.
"I am not happy with this arrangement, whosoever proposed this decision is not different from an oppressor. We are politicians, we were put into these offices by the people, we cannot prevent them from entering into government's offices," he said.
Meanwhile the security managers suggested to the MEC that they principals should answer themselves as they usually cut the budget especially for security companies.