South Africa’s opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA), has called on Chair of the Public Service Commission, Somadoda Fikeni to investigate allegations that more than 2,000 bureaucrats are holding their positions without any qualifications.
This follows a written reply to a DA Parliamentary question in which the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) admitted that at 1 May, there were 2,364 senior managers out of the 9,309 employed in the Public Service with no qualifications for the positions that they currently occupied.
The DA’s Shadow Deputy Minister for Public Service and Administration, Mimmy Gondwe said the written reply by the DPSA further revealed that half of the senior managers with no qualifications were employed in national Departments.
The highest numbers were in the South African Police Service and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
“Although the DA takes the point that this number has come down slightly since the DA first brought the issue to light in 2021, it remains concerned that more than a year down the line, 25 per cent of the senior managers employed in our country’s Public Service still have no qualifications,” Ms Gondwe (pictured) said.
“This must be having an impact on our public administration, in particular on its ability to provide quality and efficient services.”
She said if the Government was truly serious about building a capable, effective and efficient Public Service, the people at the helm must be qualified, experienced and competent enough to hold the positions they occupied.
Pretoria, 9 September 2022
