11% of SMS in FSPG do not have required NQF levels for their jobs

Staff reporter

Bloemfontein – At least thirsty six (36) out of three hundred and fourteen (341) employees of Free State Provincial Government’s senior managers do not meet qualifications requirements.

This is according to a report by Public Service Commission (PSC) titled “REPORT ON SENIOR MANAGERS IN PUBLIC SERVICE”.

The report was released after all twelve (12) departments were requested to verify qualifications of all SMS members.

Data received from 30 November 2023 – May 2024 breaks the numbers as follows:

• Department of Agriculture and Rural Development: 4 our of 33 employe do not meet required NQF level
• COGTA: all 20 employees meet the required NQF level
• Community Safety, Roads, and Transport: 8 out of 27 do not meet required NQF level
• DESTEA: 5 out of 27 employees do not meet required NQF level
• Education: all 20 employees meet required NQF level
• Health: 2 out of 44 don’t meet required NQF level
• Human Settlements: 9 of 24 do not meet required NQF level
• Office of The Premier: 4 out 26 do not meet required NQF level
• Provincial Treasury: 1 out of 23 do not meet required NQF level
• DPWI: all 21 employees meet the required NQF level
• Social Development: all 23 employees meet the required NQF level
• SACR: 3 out of 17do not meet the required NQF level

The report breaks down this further:

“While 36 (11%) SMS members did not meet the minimum requirement, 20 were appointed before the 2015 Directive came into effect and 15 were appointed after 2016 and the appointment date is not known for the remaining SMS member.

The rationale for appointing SMS members who do not meet the requirements of the 2016 PSR are not clear and it is also unclear if deviations for those appointments were granted“

All SMS members must have a qualification that is recognised by SAQA at an NQF level 7 or higher. All qualifications must be verified with SAQA before an employee is appointed as stated in the National Qualifications Framework Act, but in practice this is not always the case.“

Not all departments complied with the verification process according to the table below.

At least two departments out of all eight who have SMS members who do not have required NQF level have interventions in the form of bursaries.

“In addition to awarding bursaries, the Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs also made provision for in- service training in attempt to capacitate SMS members who were transferred into positions that they did not qualify for.

The Office of the Premier had four SMS members who did not meet the requirements for their posts and all four were appointed before implementation of the 2016 PSR. The department indicated that bursaries were availed to all officials but did not indicate if any of the four SMS members were granted and utilised the bursaries“

In conclusion, the PSC passed the ball to DPSA:

“The DPSA must direct all departments with SMS members who still do not meet the minimum qualifications requirements to submit plans on how the gaps will be addressed with clear time frames to enable proper monitoring of those plans.”

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