More than 100 000 jobs left vacant in government

Despite the high unemployment rate in South Africa, some government departments and provincial governments are still failing to fill thousands of vacant posts.

This was revealed in the state of the public sector report released by the Public Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday.

The report, which looked at the sector between January and March 2018, revealed that the public sector vacancy rate improved by 1.5% from the previous quarter, but a huge number of posts remained vacant.

“As at March 2018, the Public Service had 1 303 607, of which 1 174 301 were filled, and 129 306 [9.9%] were vacant. The vacancy rate, therefore, has improved by 1.5%,” the report read.

The Eastern Cape led the provinces with 29 240 vacant posts, while the Northern Cape came in last with 3 547 unfilled vacancies.

Total number of approved, filled and vacant positions in the Public Service as at March 2018:

Source: Public Service Commission

The commission said the highest vacancy rate (66 790 posts, 52%) was at an administrative or operational level within the overall public service.

“The second highest is at salary levels 9-12 [60 395 posts, 47%], which is junior and middle management level and the level at which most employees have developed specialist skills. This statistic remains more or less the same from the previous quarter,” the report read.

The PSC also revealed the majority of grievances it received from civil servants in the first quarter of 2018 related to allegations of unfair treatment by superiors, followed by salary problems.

PSC manager Michael Seloane said: “With regards to the overall number of grievances handled by the PSC, up to 31 March 2018, the PSC dealt with 654 grievances including 86 carry-over cases from the previous financial year.

“The total number of grievances handled by the PSC, up to the end of March 2018 increased by 209, that is 47 percent [increase].

“I may as well emphasise here that the grievances that come to the PSC are very small, compared to the grievances that are handled in the departments. The ones that come to the PSC are as a result of the departments failing to resolve them to the satisfaction of the aggrieved within the departments.”

The PSC manages the national anticorruption hotline, on behalf of the South African government, as it was mandated by Cabinet in 2002.

The report released on Tuesday indicated that of the 388 “properly referred grievances” for the period ending 31 March 2018, a total of 302 (78%) of the grievances had been concluded and 86 (22%) grievances remained pending.

Of the 302 grievances, 46 (15%) were found to be substantiated, 78 (26 percent) were found to be unsubstantiated and eight [three percent] were found to be “partially substantiated”.

A total of 170 grievances were closed after the matters were resolved at departmental level as a result of the intervention of the commission.

– Additional reporting by ANA

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