Question NW560 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
09 June 2020 - NW560
Gondwe, Dr M to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
By what envisaged date wills his Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, finalise its organisational realignment process in line with the recommendations of the Auditor-General of South Africa?
Reply:
I wish to inform the Honourable Member that I regard the finalization of the organizational re-alignment process of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development as of critical importance, and I have therefore directed the Acting Director-General to appoint a designated official in his office to manage this in consultation with the Human Resources Management Unit, which has done a lot of incremental work in this regard.
It is a worrying fact that the Departmental organisational structure has not been reviewed for a period of decade. This has had a negative effect in the Department’s ability and capability to meet its performance targets. I have discussed sharply with the Acting Director-General regarding the delay in reviewing the structure and the high vacancy rate in the Senior Management echelon which I have explained in a separate related Parliamentary Question.
I can report that several critical Senior Management vacancies were in the process of being filled or advertised immediately before the processes were halted due to the declaration of the national state of disaster and the subsequent national lockdown. Amongst these is the acting appointment of the Solicitor-General which we were able to conclude just few days before the announcement of the lockdown by the President. Mr Fhedzisani Pandelani has been appointed for three (3) years, and this will allow the Department enough time to reconfigure the Offices of the Solicitor-General and those of the State Attorneys to address the current capacity challenges in this important institution which are well documented.
We have also resumed some of the processes to fill some of the vacant posts which we are able to do during the current level four (4) lockdown phase. The Department has also solicited services of the Government Technical Assistance Centre (GTAC), an agency of the National Treasury, to provide the requisite technical skills to review the Department’s structure.
In terms of the Project Charter which the Department received from GTAC, the complete review of the structure will be finalised by November 2020. This will enable the Department to implement the new structure from the beginning of 2021.