OPINION | Those responsible for hiring unqualified officials should be disciplined

Experience and skills are just two factors recruiters consider when interviewing a candidate for any position.

The more senior the role, the longer and more detailed the list of core competencies becomes.

In the public service, recruitment is more than just filling a vacant seat in a government department; it is about hiring a competent worker who ultimately serves the public.

The Eastern Cape government has over the years had its fair share of jobs scandals, including sex-for-jobs and jobs-for-pals, which have hinted at deeper systemic issues within the provincial administration.

There are safeguards in place, however, including the Public Service Commission (PSC) which plays a crucial role in ensuring competent civil servants are hired. 

Five years later, and the transport department has yet to act on the Public Service Commission’s  recommendations

President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his state of the nation address in February 2023, said: “We are amending legislation and strengthening the role of the Public Service Commission to ensure qualified people are appointed to senior management positions and to move towards creating a single, harmonised public service.”

In 2019, the PSC highlighted the “questionable” appointments of 26 officials within the Eastern Cape transport department.

Thirteen of them, said to be inexperienced and unqualified for the positions they occupied, are still in the employ of the department.

The commission recommended they be demoted to their original positions.

Five years later, and the department has yet to act on the PSC recommendations.

The implicated officials challenged it in court but failed.

And while the transport department drags its feet, they continue to reap the financial benefits of positions they weren’t qualified to occupy in the first place.

Their salaries range between R440,000 to R1.9m per annum.  

But it is more than just the money, which the department often reminds the public it does not have when issues of scholar transport are raised.

It is also about the skills deficit in those senior positions and how it potentially impacts on provincial transport’s mandate.

The department claims that “the processes to have the report implemented are at an advanced stage”, but why have the PSC’s recommendations simply been ignored for five years?

What corrective measures have been put in place to ensure civil servants are hired based on merit and qualifications? 

Those responsible for hiring officials not equal to the task should be disciplined.

These irregularities not only erode trust in the system, but cast doubt on the integrity of governance as a whole. 

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