It is believed that nearly 2,000 senior government managers at the national and provincial levels lack the necessary qualifications for their positions.
In response to a parliamentary question and answer, the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) provided this information using data from PERSAL, the central payroll administration system. The department was asked to provide the total number of senior managers in the Public Service who do not qualify for their current positions as of March 2023.
According to the DPSA, “as of 1 March 2023, in terms of information taken from PERSAL, there were 1,874 senior managers within the Public Service who have no qualifications for the positions that they currently occupy.”
In accordance with the 2016 directive for the appointment of senior management service (SMS) members, the following are the minimum qualifications for senior managers:
Levels of director and chief director: NQF Level 7 academic qualification; what’s more,
Appointee Chief General and HOD: a degree from an accredited university and a degree from an accredited university at NQF Level 8
Officials in positions that either do not possess the minimum NQF level qualification or whose qualifications have not been captured on PERSAL by the department in which they work are considered to have no qualification for the position that they occupy.
However, the department stated that while 502 of these managers were appointed after the minimum requirement directive was implemented in August 2016, 1,372 of these managers were appointed before the directive was implemented.
“It ought to be noticed that commitment are going on with offices to guarantee that all capability subtleties are refreshed on PERSAL, particularly for ranking directors delegated after August 2016,” said the DPSA.
“The DPSA is mediating to explore arrangements made after 2016, and data got demonstrates that a few divisions may not be refreshing their data on PERSAL, in any event, when ranking directors are in consistence with least necessities,” it added.
The quantity of unfit ranking directors per public and common division is recorded in the tables beneath.