There were 102,153 vacant funded posts in the public service as at the end of January, with the health and education departments both at national and provincial level the most severely affected.
This emerged from a written reply to a parliamentary question by public service and administration minister Mzamo Buthelezi (IFP) to a question by MK party MP Mandlenkosi Matutu.
There are about 1.2-million public servants in the country, which translates to an overall vacancy rate of 8.5%, though this varies from province to province and from department to department.
While government critics argue the public service is bloated, this is mainly directed at managerial echelons rather than personnel at the coalface of service delivery. The government’s estimated salary bill for 2025/26 after taking into account the 5.5% public sector wage increase agreement is R824bn. The wage agreement will cost R23.4bn over the next three years.
The departments with the most vacant funded posts were those at the front-line of service delivery including education, health and police as well as correctional services.
The vacancies in the departments of education and health deepened as a result of the austerity measures imposed by the Treasury in previous budgets, which failed to provide for the unbudgeted, additional compensation of employees as agreed with public-sector trade unions, leaving this to provinces to fund out of their existing budgets.
The Treasury has embarked on a R11bn initiative over two years to retire about 30,000 public servants early.
“Vacancies in the public service impact service delivery, especially in critical sectors where skilled workers are essential,” Buthelezi said.
Departments reported challenges in filling vacancies including budget constraints and the need to reprioritise funds; strict administrative processes that slow down recruitment and the time required for thorough pre-employment verifications.
“Budget constraints, strict hiring processes and the need to appoint the right people all contribute to delays. Balancing ‘speed’ with strategic recruitment is crucial to building a capable and effective public service that serves the public well in the long term,” Buthelezi said.
The responsibility for filling vacancies within a department rests with the relevant executive authority, as recruitment in the public service is decentralised. In terms of public service regulations a vacant funded post must be filled within eight months of becoming vacant.
“While filling vacancies on time is ideal, it is not always possible,” Buthelezi said in his reply.
He provided a breakdown of the time vacant posts had been left unfilled in each department, some of them extending for several years.
The vacancy rate in the Eastern Cape education department at end-January was 12% and in health 10.7%; while the respective rates for the Western Cape were 10.9% and 10%; the Northern Cape 16.6% and 14.6%; Gauteng 5.87% and 6.5%; KwaZulu-Natal 6.4% and 10.35%; Limpopo 10% and 3.3%; North West 9.4% and 11%; Free State 1.9% and 2.8% and Mpumalanga 7.5% and 6.9%.
At national level the education and health departments had a vacancy rate of 7.15% and 6.89%, respectively while the police department had 183,031 filled posts and 23,241 vacant posts and a vacancy rate of 11.27%. The department of correctional services, another labour-intensive department, had 39,924 filled posts and 4,487 vacant posts and a vacancy rate of 10.84%.
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