Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism

To ensure the timeous filling of critical posts, the Department has established a Human     Resource Committee, chaired by the Head of Department. The Committee comprises the two Branch Managers, the Chief Financial Officer, and the Director: Strategic and Operational Support, and provides oversight and strategic directions for managing the Compensation of Employees Expenditure (COE).

Through the implementation of the above processes, the Department currently has 58 funded posts approved for filling, with approximately 93 per cent actively in recruitment. The remainder is currently in the process of being advertised. 

To mitigate potential delays, the Head of Department has instituted the following mechanisms:

1. Weekly engagements with the Department of the Premier’s recruitment and selection role players, Organisational Design representatives, and relevant Programme Managers to review the status of each approved post, resolve bottlenecks, ensure alignment on timeframes, and clarify any possible recruitment and selection policy matters impacting the recruitment process.
2. Escalation protocols for prolonged delays, whereby posts that exceed predefined recruitment timelines are discussed and escalated to senior management to enable early intervention and accountability.
3. Enhanced monitoring through a recruitment database to ensure clear oversight and enable early identification of systemic delays or recurring bottlenecks.

In addition, a dedicated Corporate Services Relationship Management official will be assigned to engage regularly with the Recruitment and Selection Unit within DoTP, to monitor progress, address challenges, and implement actions arising from these engagements.  The Department of Economic Development and Tourism has offered to fund this dedicated capacity within the Department of the Premier.  

The Department has reassigned staff within service delivery units to avoid any service delivery impacts.  

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

THE MINSTER OF AGRICULTURE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM

The Cost of Employment allocation of the Department increased from R485.016 million to R548.622 million (13.11% of the revised estimate of 2025/26). This increase includes a cost of living adjustment of 4.14%, pay progression of 1.5% as well as an increase in other allowances (including housing and medical allowances), linked to CPI. 

The R548.622 million allocation of 2026/27 includes a once-off allocation of R11.148 million for the Early Retirement & Voluntary Exit Programme for the 22 officials that will be exiting the Department in 2026/27. 

Furthermore, the Department received a priority allocation over the MTEF of R12.655 million in 2026/27, R13.206 million in 2027/28 and R13.800 million in 2028/29 for augmenting the Veterinary Services programme, specifically increased capacity and related operational costs. 

When budget is allocated to a particular post, there are certain steps that has to be followed before the vacancy can enter the recruitment and selection process:

1. Critical post approval: In view of limited availability of funds and the fact that filling of a post is a long term commitment, it is imperative that the Department makes 100% sure that posts which are most critical for service delivery are filled.  To achieve this, Programmes provide extensive motivation which is considered by a panel of top level managers who then makes a recommendation to the Head of Department for final approval.
2. Once critical post approval is obtained, the Department is required to send a formal request to advertise to the Corporate Services Centre.  At this point the process focuses on practical necessities such as the content of the job description, verification of the post level, the information required for an advertisement etc.
3. Once all the requirements (i.t.o. the Public Service Regulations an associated policies) are met, the post can be advertised and the Recruitment and Selection process is finally under way.

Therefore, not all posts for which funding has been allocated for the 26/27 financial year are in the recruitment and selection process yet, as the above mentioned steps must first be completed.

(a)(i) and (ii)    There are currently 103 funded and vacant critical posts approved for filling of which 83 are already in the recruitment and selection process.

2. To ensure that filling of vacancies is actively managed, recruitment and selection is a standing item on the agenda of the monthly departmental top management meeting.