FILE PICTURE: Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene. (Photo by Gallo Images / Nardus Engelbrecht)
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene is working towards promoting regulations that will give officials 18 months to get the necessary qualifications for their jobs or face unemployment.
This is because more than half the country’s municipal managers and chief financial officers in municipalities such as Johannesburg and Tshwane do not have the minimum competency levels to do their jobs, reports EWN.
This was revealed in Nene’s written reply to a DA parliamentary question in which he stated that officials will have 18 months to from their date of appointment to obtain the relevant competency levels for their jobs.
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According to EWN, Nene said: “Only 94 of 193 municipal managers and 79 of 218 chief financial officers are properly qualified.”
In addition to this, the positions of municipal manager and chief financial officer are vacant in about 40 municipalities across South Africa.
Nene stated that it will be compulsory for all municipal councils to make the relevant competency requirements a condition of employment and include them in officials’ contracts.
National government, provinces, and municipalities will have to discuss, monitor, and report back on the matter.
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