Question to the Minister of Small Business Development - NW3450

What led to the delays in the appointment of the Chief Director for Corporate Management in her department?

The reasons for the recruitment of the Chief Director: Corporate Management having been finalised by 1 July 2022 were due to the following:

During the recruiting period the responsible unit only had 1 Human Resource Practitioner and 1 Deputy Director (total staff compliment for the unit) at that stage, this while having to deal with the normal workload as well.
The festive period impacted the recruitment timeframe. This refers to the months for December 2021 and January 2022 and these are normally considered “dead” months since most staff and participants to the process are not available. The process tends to get suspended over this period.
The Recruitment mailbox was a challenge and could not handle the quantity of applications. Human Resource Management also found that applications from internal candidates did not go through to the mailbox. This was resolved by moving servers. However, the transfer between servers further contributed to these challenges. Additional challenges included the sorting of online mailboxes where different number of applications had to be reconciled in order to make sure the process was not compromised.
The final steps of the process transpired as follows:

a) Interviews were concluded in March 2022. This includes all administrative processes including finding panel members, confirming availability which in itself is a challenge.
b) Then process of the competency assessment and personnel suitability followed which took approximately a month.
c) The internal administrative appointment processes followed and were completed in May 2022.
d) 1 June 2022 was the notice month and the successful candidate assumed duty on 1 July 2022.

STELLA NDABENI-ABRAHAMS

MINISTER: SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT