Public Service and Administration Minister Noxolo Kiviet said the total number of funded posts was 181607 as at March 31, 2023. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town - The number of funded vacant posts in the public service sector has increased tremendously in just a period of three months, to 15000 as at March this year.
This was revealed by Public Service and Administration Minister Noxolo Kiviet, when replying to parliamentary questions from DA MP Mimmy Gondwe.
Gondwe wrote to Kiviet enquiring about the number of funded posts that were currently vacant, among other things.
The Cape Times Times reported last month that there were 166365 funded posts that were vacant as at December 2022.
Responding to Gondwe, Kiviet said the total number of funded posts was 181607 as at March 31, 2023.
The number of vacancies in national departments increased from 38 151 recorded in December to 47642 two months ago.
All nine provinces had a combined total of 133965 vacant positions as at March.
The Eastern Cape led the pack with 30759 funded vacant positions, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 22126, Gauteng with 20 707, North West with 17178, the Western Cape with 13 663, Limpopo with 12 863, Free State with 5909, Mpumalanga with 5775 and the Northern Cape with 4983.
According to Kiviet’s response, the number of vacancies were highest at deputy director level positions.
“It was mentioned that it is not easy to recruit and attract some of those skills due to scarcity in the job market in line with the inherent job requirements.
“Current serving staff under this category are not keen to register, which further hampers existing staff mobility and utilization in higher level posts,” she said.
The minister also said internal and external administrative challenges existed.
“The prescribed pre-employment verifications were also raised.
“However, departments did not provide substantive proof of such delays,” Kiviet said.
Cape Times
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