1. 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

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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  (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
(35.57%)
4086
(41.25%)
5819
(58.75%)
Data source: Persal– period ending Sept 2017

7. 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
539 (0.42%)
509 (0.41%)
Free State
60933
56 645
218 (0.36%)
218 (0.38%)
Gauteng
3 747 (1.98%)
3 656 (2.17%)
KwaZulu-Natal
650 (0.25%)
664 (0.34%)
Limpopo
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  1 
10 862 (0.78%)
10 886 (0.89%)
Data source: Persal– period ending Sept 2017

8. 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)

9. 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, 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. THANK YOU