Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism
With regard to veterinary capacity in the province:
- (a) Why does his Department employ only 8 state veterinarians and not recruit more permanent staff, (b) what has been the cost of using 26 private veterinarians in the past five years and (c) what steps are being taken to strengthen the permanent veterinary capacity;
- (a) how many vacant posts are funded, but remain unfilled, and have been advertised and (b) what measures is his Department implementing to fill these vacancies urgently in order to prevent further service delivery failures?
(1) (a) The Department does not only have 8 State Veterinarians. In fact, the Veterinary Service within the Department is comprised of 25 Veterinarians who play a critical role in safeguarding animal health across the Province. The Animal Health Sub-Directorate is organised into eight State Veterinarian Areas (offices), strategically distributed to ensure effective coverage and service delivery. Each of these areas is staffed by one or two State Veterinarians, who are supported by dedicated technical and administrative personnel. The other State Veterinarians are responsible Animal Health, Veterinary Public Health and Export Control, and Veterinary Laboratory Services.
In addition, the Department permanently employs 5 Control Animal Health Technicians and 30 Animal Health Technicians. These professionals are focused on disease control, animal disease prevention and disease surveillance.
(b) Private Veterinarians work in collaboration with State Veterinarians serving affected farming communities. Private Veterinarians are remunerated directly by the clients they serve and not by the State. No State funds have been dispensed to pay private veterinarians.
(c) Work study has been commissioned to ascertain capacity requirements and service demands. The demand requests for services have increased disproportional to financial and/ or personnel capacity dispensed.
13. (2) (a) WCDOA: NUMBER OF VACANCIES IN THE PROGRAMME VETERINARY SERVICES - 20 Apr '26
Job Title | Salary Level | No of vacancies | No of permanent posts in R&S process | No of temporary posts R&S concluded (for filling) |
State Veterinarian | 11 | 5 | 3 | N/A |
Control Animal Health Technician | 10 | 6 | 0 | N/A |
Animal Health Technician | 8 | 10 | 1 | 20 |
Veterinary Public Health Officer | 8 | 5 | 1 | N/A |
Veterinary Technologist | 8 | 5 | 0 | N/A |
TOTAL: | 31 | 5 | 20 |
Please note that the 31 permanent posts include the 18 newly funded (February 2026) Animal Health posts. In addition to the permanent posts in this table, the Department advertised and concluded the recruitment processes for 20 Animal Health Technicians on a 12-month contract.
(b) To speed up the administrative handling of recruitment, the Department will streamline internal approval workflows, and enforce strict turnaround times in line with Corporate Service Centre (CSC). In addition, the Department has engaged the CSC to expedite the vetting procedures and all attendant due diligence exercises involved in the recruitment process.
