A written reply to a DA parliamentary question has revealed that several key positions within the public service have been without permanent appointments for years, with positions such as Directors-General (DGs) and Heads of Departments (HoDs) being vacant for an average of 22 months.
As a case in point, the Mpumalanga Provincial Department of Health has had an HoD vacancy for 7.5 years.
As government is always quick to lay the blame for its poor or non-existent service delivery on the absence of substantive positions such as HoDs or DGs, the DA is surprised to find that currently 8 national and 1 provincial DG have only been appointed in an acting capacity, and that 25 of 87 provincial departments are without permanent HoDs. This, despite the Public Service Act and the Public Service Regulations requiring that an acting official may not be in a post for more than 12 consecutive calendar months.
The ANC government appears to have abused this loophole with a revolving door of acting DGs and HoDs, while key positions remain vacant for years on end. Section 32 of the Public Service Act gives the executive authority or HoD the power to direct an employee under his or her control to temporarily perform any functions other than those ordinarily assigned to that employee or appropriate for his or her grade or post. This leaves departments vulnerable to exploitation and undue influence by government on the appointment of key positions in the public service, which is non-political in nature. Such cadre deployment is driving the country to its knees.
The DA will submit follow-up parliamentary questions to further interrogate the issue on why such key positions have not been filled in an effort to ensure that government meets its service delivery commitments. South Africans are fed-up with government only being interested in serving the politically connected. Government is there to serve the people, not the other way around and filling key public service positions to ensure stability in departments is one of the first steps towards ensuring effective service delivery.
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