PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE Factsheet on factors impeding government departments from achieving set targets of 2% Persons with Disability and 50% Women in Senior Management Service level PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE August 2018

OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION INTRODUCTION TERMS OF REFERENCE OBJECTIVES METHODOLOGY GENDER REPRESENTATION PERSONS WITH DISABILITY REPRESENTATION IMPEDING FACTORS RECOMMENDATIONS

INTRODUCTION Government has put in place the Employment Equity Act, No. 55, 1998 (as amended) to facilitate workplace transformation through: a) elimination of unfair discrimination and b) implementation of affirmative action and measures to enable equitable representation of employees from different race, gender and differently abled groups in the workplace. All employers, including the Public Service, are required to implement the provisions of the EEA to ensure the equitable representation of under- represented groups in the workplace. In 1995 Cabinet set various employment equity targets relating to the representation of different racial groups across all salary levels, persons with disabilities across all salary levels, and women at Senior Management Service (SMS) level. At an aggregate level, since 2005 the target relating to race was met - though there are instances of under or over representation of some racial groups in the Public Service in some provinces. The concern is that the 2% for persons with disabilities and 50% representation of women at SMS targets have not been achieved in the Public Service, though some departments have achieved both targets.

TERMS OF REFERENCE AND OBJECTIVES In March 2017, the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration as well as Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation requested the PSC to conduct an assessment to establish the factors prohibiting government departments from achieving the 2% of Persons with Disability and 50% of Women in Senior Management Service level target sets. OBJECTIVES To establish the factors impeding government departments from achieving the set targets of 2% of Persons with Disability and 50% of Women in Senior Management Service level.

METHODOLOGY In conducting the assessment, the PSC: collected information from national and provincial departments through a survey instrument, had a brief meeting with representatives of the South African Disability Alliance (SADA) in November 2017 to solicit inputs, and written inputs were solicited from Disabled People South Africa (DPSA). The data collected through the survey and engagements with organisations representing Persons with Disability enabled the PSC to develop the Factsheet.

GENDER REPRESENTATION National/Provinces Total number of Public Service employees Total for Gender in Public Service SMS Gender Representation *Female % **Male % Female % Male % National Depts 346112 149 528 (43.20%) 196 584 (56.80%) 2392 (42.00%) 3304 (57.99%) Eastern Cape 123980 87 102 (70.25%) 36 878 (29.75%) 269 (41.45%) 380 (58.55%) Free State 56645 36494 (64.43%) 20 151 (35.57%) 122 (33.89%) 238 (66.11%) Gauteng 167857 118 079 (70.34%) 49 778 (29.66%) 364 (44.44%) 455 (55.56%) KwaZulu-Natal 191862 132 138 (68.87%) 59724 (31.13%) 251 (42.69%) 337 (57.31%) Limpopo 107244 67 626 (63.06%) 39 618 (36.94%) 188 (37.52%) 313 (62.48%) Mpumalanga 71214 46 456 (65.23%) 24 758 (34.77%) 111 (36.63%) 192 (63.37%) North West 59467 39 971 (67.22%) 19 496 (32.78%) 130 (39.04%) 203 (60.96%) Northern Cape 24265 15 631 (64.42%) 8 634 (35.58%) 93 (37.05%) 158 (62.95%) Western Cape 80840 54 397 (67.29%) 26 443 (32.71%) 166 (40.99%) 239 (59.01%) Total 1229486 747 422 482 064 (35.57%) 4086 (41.25%) 5819 (58.75%) Data source: Persal– period ending Sept 2017

PERSONS WITH DISABILITY REPRESENTATION National and Provinces Total Number of Employees   Total Number of Persons with Disability Comparison 31 March 2017 30 Sept 2017 National Depts 387185 346112 4 036 (1.04%) 4 172 (1.20%) Eastern Cape 128 690 123 980 539 (0.42%) 509 (0.41%) Free State 60933 56 645 218 (0.36%) 218 (0.38%) Gauteng 189 016 167 857 3 747 (1.98%) 3 656 (2.17%) KwaZulu-Natal 264 180 191 682 650 (0.25%) 664 (0.34%) Limpopo 110 403 107 244 475 (0.43%) 468 (0.43%) Mpumalanga 73 487 71 214 405 (0.55%) 416 (0.58%) North West 64 933 59 467 350 (0.54%) 350 (0.59%) Northern Cape 26 135 24 265 77 (0.29%) 78 (0.32%) Western Cape 79 958 80 840 365 (0.45%) 355 (0.44%) Public Service 1 384 920 1 229 486 10 862 (0.78%) 10 886 (0.89%) Data source: Persal– period ending Sept 2017

IMPEDING FACTOTRS Reasons for failure to achieve the 2% target for persons with Disability Physical access Office accommodation not conducive for persons with autism, and lack of ramps and ablution facilities for persons with physical disabilities. Provision of assistive devices No budgets set aside for disability management and therefore no provision for assistive devices. This results in persons with disability not being gainfully employed and capacitated through ongoing training. Recruitment and Selection processes Adverts not drafted in Braille, print media does not cover blind people, and government websites are not accessible to people who depend on “voice” to access electronic information. Adverts contain discriminatory requirements (e.g. drivers licence)

IMPEDING FACTOTRS Attitudes, perception and lack of training Officials not mainstreaming disability into departmental plans, programmes and budgets of government. Lack of understanding of the complex nature of disability areas to the extent that invisible disability needs (e.g. autism and other mental and emotional disabilities) are not recognised, understood and provided for in the work environment. Non-disclosure of disabilities by existing employees. Information from GEMS showed that in 2016/17, 44 273 officials using GEMS were on chronic medication for mental health issues and this translates to 3.07%. The lack of disclosure, in some instances, results in some employees with disabilities being unable to perform their duties effectively, thus resulting in disciplinary processes and/or dismissals, whereas, disclosure could have resulted in the employer - with the assistance of qualified occupational assessment therapists, assessing the capacity of effected employee to work in different jobs or occupational categories.

IMPEDING FACTOTRS Skills pool for persons with disabilities Limited skills pool for persons with disabilities. No targeted training interventions for unemployed and already employed persons with disability, resulting in employees in this category occupying lower level administration jobs. Competition within the public sector and between the public and private sector in terms of salary packages makes it impossible for departments to attract and retain suitably qualified persons with disabilities. Lack of partnerships with organisations representing Persons with Disabilities No structured collaboration between the Public Service and organisations representing Persons with Disabilities. Narrow focus on numeric targets result in lack of holistic approach to address all critical areas of reform to ensure the effective development and placement of Persons with Disabilities. Lack of will to provide financial support to enable the sector to support government properly given that the viability and effectiveness of the sector is largely dependent on limited donor and private sector funding.

IMPEDING FACTOTRS Reasons for failure to achieve the 50% target for women at SMS level Historic male domination of some professions and departments The male dominated professional occupations such as engineering make it difficult to recruit and retain females. Young to middle aged male employees dominate the MMS and SMS levels, as a result opportunities to recruit women become available mainly after resignations and other forms of attrition. Compliance and understanding of EE Non-compliance with EE Plans by departments. Lack of understanding of EE Act and its provisions by line managers. Over-emphasis on numeric targets results in lack of structured support for female appointees.

IMPEDING FACTOTRS Competition with the private sector High competition with the private sector and strict regulatory frameworks in the Public Service governing salary structures hinder the attraction and retention of women in scarce skills areas. Budget and restructuring in departments Budget cuts and moratorium on the filling of posts inhibit the filling of posts. Restructuring of departments affects progress on equity as departments stop filling positions during restructuring.

RECOMMENDATIONS There is a need to deal with the identified challenges at a systemic level and to shift focus from ‘nominal’ representation to address entrenched and institutionalised forms of exclusion. To achieve this the following recommendations are made: A Task Team should be formed comprising of the Departments of Public Service and Administration (as custodian of the HRM framework in the Public Service), Women, Labour, Social Development and Organisations for Persons with Disability to develop a framework that will formalize the utilisation of Organizations representing Persons with Disability to recruit, train and prepare persons with disability for the world of work. Once such framework is approved, all departments should be compelled to use Organisations for Persons with Disability in the recruitment process as well as the training and broader empowerment of persons with disabilities in order to meet the equity targets as well as enhance their ability to compete for jobs in the Public Sector. The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) should take a leading role in ensuring that all existing frameworks are reviewed for purposes of ensuring alignment and success in the institutionalization of succession planning, especially with respect to the representation of women and persons with disability.

RECOMMENDATIONS Training materials specifically that of the NSG needs to be more accommodative as there is a concern that the induction and orientation programme into the Public Service fails to accommodate Persons with Disability, especially those who rely on sign language and braille for reading and interaction. The quality of communication technology in the Public Service should be improved to allow for improved dissemination of information to persons with disabilities, as many government websites are not accessible to all differently abled persons. Compliance with prescripts is essential, especially the need to ensure that departments are guided by detailed and approved employment equity policies and plans and to ensure that employment equity plans are not implemented in a rigid manner that will undermine service delivery. Ensuring that affirmative action measures include all measures listed in section 15 of the Employment Equity Act - excluding quotas, and takes into consideration contextual factors that are outlined in section 42 of the Act.

RECOMMENDATIONS Consequence management should be applied where departments are not complying with the set targets. DPSA should consider institutionalizing early retirement packages in the Public Service for SMS employees between the ages of 55 and 60/65. This will assist in creating space for young people to be employed and also for middle management employees, especially women, to have opportunities to ascend to the SMS level in departments that are male dominated. Additional recommendation: The Portfolio Committee should consider convening a working session with key stakeholders to engage on the identified challenges and proposed solutions in respect of the 2% target for Persons with Disability. The following stakeholders would be relevant to participate in such a session: South African Disability Alliance (SADA) and Disabled People South Africa (DPSA). Departments of Labour, Social Development and Public Service and Administration because they all have a role to play when it comes to policy development, advocacy, implementation and strategic support and engagement with organisations that represent Persons with Disability.

THANK YOU