Vacant govt posts nearly filled
2011-10-11 21:38
Pretoria - All three tiers of government are close to filling their vacant positions with only about 15,000 posts still open at national and provincial level, Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane said on Tuesday.
At the end of March, there were 8 600 unfilled posts at national level out of a total of 300 182 that had been budgeted for.
The figures at provincial level were 7 000 unfilled posts out of a total of 862 750 funded posts.
"There are some remaining vacancies in some departments, particularly for highly skilled positions such as engineers, where it has been found to be difficult to find candidates," Chabane said in a statement after a meeting of the President's Co-ordinating Council in Pretoria.
"The concerned departments are currently engaged in recruitment processes to fill these positions."
Figures for local government were not provided, but Chabane said: "Local government has filled most of their funded vacant posts over the past year."
According to the National Treasury's report "Local Government Budgets and Expenditure Review: 2006/07 - 2012/13" released last month, metros were operating with a vacancy rate of 24.2% in 2009, while for local and district municipalities the vacancy rate averaged 36%.
Within these figures for 2009 were extreme variances, with the Tshwane metro having 51.1% of its posts vacant, and Cape Town reporting a vacancy rate of 9.3%.
Comment could not be immediately obtained from the SA Local Government Association.
- SAPA
