Question NW1583 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
09 June 2023 - NW1583
Khoza, Mr AV to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
Whether his department has changed the organisational structure to expand and include new positions; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (a) was approval obtained from the Department of Public Service and Administration and (b) did the approval include a position of a deputy director-general in the Office of the Director-General?
Reply:
The review of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD)`s organizational structure can be traced back 2007. Many structures were designed but not approved and in some cases the structure was partially approved making it difficult to appoint people on permanent positions.
The organizational structure was not expanded as the new Branches previously existed but were not formalized through an approved structure. The Department Organization Structure was reviewed and all the Branches including the Department`s Executive Committee (EXCO) and organized labour, were consulted throughout the process.
The revised organizational structure is aligned to the Departmental mandate and legislative framework and the National Development Plan (NDP) vision 2030 and the Strategic Plan 2021/2025.
Among other challenges addressed in the revised organizational structure, is to address the poor span of control and blurred reporting lines. Benchmarking exercise was conducted with other departments in the Justice Cluster.
a) Approval of the new structure ha been obtained from the Minister of Public Service and Administration; and
b) The new approved structure does not include a position of Deputy Director- General (DDG) in the Office of the Director- General, but the reviewed structure includes the creation of only one Branch: Institutional Development and Support and one (1) post of Deputy Director- General that will head the said Branch. The post is not in the Office of the Director- General but closely linked to the responsibility of the Director- General.
The rationale for the creation of the said Branch is aligned to the DPSA proposals; but specific to the functional needs of the Department. The new branch is responsible for the following functional areas:
- Strategic Management; an existing component previously reported directly to the DG. The component is responsible for Strategic planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistical and Research information by National Operations Centre, Service Delivery and Improvement of norms and standards;
- Public Education and Communications Services, an existing component that previously reported to the Branch: Corporate Services. The component has been renamed Communication Management in line with the naming convention used in the Public Service. The component provides public education, media liaison support for the Department and Ministry, and oversee communication support services for the Provincial offices.
- Justice College, also and existing component that previously reported to the Branch: Corporate Services. The component is responsible for offering Legal, Quasi-Judicial, Justice –specific Systems training and development services, for the public services and State- Owned Enterprises (SOE`s) officials, and other legal fraternity. The reorganisation of the structure was aligned to the college`s repositioning strategy and direct how it is capacitated; and
- Policy, Entity and Cluster Coordination (previously known as Chief Director: Chief Legal Researcher) is newly defined to provide for the management and coordination of macro policy, the coordination of activities in the Justice cluster and the overseeing of entity oversight that falls within the Minister`s portfolio.
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