City of Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba and a number of his mayoral committee members are celebrating Workers’ Day by welcoming 939 security guards into the council's ranks.

Mashaba says over 3 700 security guards have been moved off the books of contractors and into the employment of the City since 2018.

The mayor claims the guards were paid less than R4 000 a month, while the companies they worked for received around R12 000 per person contracted to council.

"Insourcing represents a departure from the past practices of the City of Johannesburg, which saw over R700m being paid annually to politically connected security companies," Mashaba said on Wednesday.

"The insourcing programme achieves dignity in the lives of these security guards, while containing the escalating contracted services in the City of Johannesburg. I know that these security guards will serve the City of Johannesburg with pride, after we have achieved so much for their dignity."

The mayor thanked several parties in partnership with the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the City of Johannesburg, most notably the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

He was joined by EFF councillor Donald Mabunda.

On Tuesday, Mashaba promised that by July 1, the City would end cleaning services contracts, currently run by "politically connected tenderpreneurs".

The @CityofJoburgZA cleaning services, currently run by Politically connected tenderpreneurs, is also being ended on 1 July 2019. All cleaners across the city are being insourced and given Dignity https://t.co/6fwJH6rzkd

— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) April 30, 2019