Question NW2852 to the Minister of Communications

Reply:

(a) What number of vacant positions did the Media Development and Diversity Agency advertise:

(i) in each of the past five financial years

F/Y	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
Number of posts advertised	3	5	7	12	19

(ii) since 1 April 2017

Three (3) positions were advertised:

• Director: Strategy Monitoring and Evaluation
• Director: Projects
• Risk Specialist

(b) what number of the specified vacancies were not filled in each case?

(i) in each of the past five financial years

F/Y	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
Number of advertised posts not filled	0	0	7	7	8 (Two positions were filled in the following financial year.

(ii) since 1 April 2017,

None of the three positions advertised have been filled as they have only recently been advertised (September 2017). However, two positions have been filled since 1 April 2017, which resulted from advertising in the previous financial year.

(c) what amount was spent on advertising the vacancies that were not filled in each case?

(i) in each of the past five financial years

Please note that the MDDA does not advertise posts individually, but, for cost efficiency, places an overall advert for the vacancies, which directs the applicants to the website for the detailed specification of the posts. Therefore, the advertising cost for 2014/2015, 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 is for all the posts advertised and not limited to the amount spent on advertising the vacancies that were not filled.

F/Y	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
Cost of advertising	0	0	R52,032*	R48,498*	R112,173*

*This is the total amount spent on advertising vacancies as, since the MDDA does not advertise posts indivually, the amount spent on advertising posts not filled could not be separated out.

(ii) since 1 April 2017,

R25 075,44 (the advert has only recently been placed and the MDDA is in the process of capturing received applications).

(d) what number of applications were received in response to the advertisements for the vacancies that were not filled

(i) in each of the past five financial years

F/Y	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17
Number of applications received in response to advertisements for vacancies not filled	No records due no handover	No records due no handover	No records due to no handover	No records due to no handover	204

ii) since 1 April 2017,

Vacancy	Number of Applications Received
Chief Financial Officer	56
Legal and Contracts Officer	66
Assistant Company Secretary	67
Travel and Events Logistics Coordinator	166
Director: Strategy, Monitoring and Evaluation	109
Director: Projects	59
Risk Specialist	69

(e) why were the specified vacancies not filled?

During quarter 1 of 2016/17 (being the period when the posts were advertised), the Board took a decision to start by appointing a CEO who would then appoint the Executive. The CEO took office on January 01, 2017 but left at the end of February 201, which in effect stalled the appointment of the Executive team. After the departure of the CEO, the Board took a decision to proceed with recruitment for the Executive Team.

In addition, the MDDA also took the decision to focus on recruiting only for those posts covered by funding that had been committed at the start of 2016/2017. With the commitment by two major funders later in the year, the focus was intensified on recruiting for all positions in the organogram.