Water Woes: Unacceptably High Vacancy Rate for Senior Managers

In a parliamentary reply to the Democratic Alliance (DA), the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, has revealed that 49 senior management positions in her Department are vacant. This means that an unacceptably high proportion of all senior positions remain unfilled. Please view the cuurent vacancies by clicking here.

In light of this reply, I will today be writing to Minister Molewa to request that this problem is addressed with the urgency it requires.

The Department of Water has a long way to go before it fixes its internal governance and management problems. Considering the importance of water to our economy and for the maintenance of the health of our population, this Department needs some urgent fixing. Once COP17 is finished, Minister Molewa needs to give her complete attention to the water side of her portfolio.

As far back as March this year the DA called for a new Director General (DG) to be appointed. At that stage, the post had been unoccupied for 19 months - since July 2009. That figure now stands at 27 months, although Minister Molewa has made assurances in a reply to a recent parliamentary question  that the interview process for appointing a permanent DG has been completed. But the final decision is still pending approval by Cabinet. 

The good news is that the disciplinary hearing of the previous Chief Financial Officer has been concluded and he has been dismissed. However, his replacement has not yet been appointed. 

The bad news is that, according to the reply from the Minister regarding the vacancies in her department, the Department is still faced with chronic vacancies at senior management level. 

Examples of this include:

• The Deputy Director General (DDG) for Policy and Regulation is vacant;
• There are 8 vacancies for Chief Directors, including the critical position of Chief Director of Water Resource Infrastructure Development; and
• There are 23 vacancies for Director positions. 

The DA has also heard that that there is soon to be another vacancy at a DDG level, as Dr Cornelius Ruiters, the DDG of National Water Resources Infrastructure has resigned.

The question has to be asked. Is anyone actually running the Department of Water?

It is also worth noting that the Department has received two qualified audit opinions in a row. The Water Trading Entity, which is expected to manage fee collection from the sale of bulk water to water users, has received several poor audit opinions over the last six years.

Minister Molewa has to her credit embarked on a ‘business re-engineering process' to fix the Department, which commenced on 1 July 2011. This involved appointing 13 external consultants, chaired by Mrs Brigitte Mabandla, to review and advise on the Department's business process. The total amount paid to committee members working on this project since its inception is nearly R5 million and it is not evident what there is to show for this expenditure. This cannot bode well for the vision, direction and morale in the department, let alone its functional competence.  

South Africa receives only half the global average rainfall and our scarce fresh water resources are increasingly under pressure from acid mine drainage and pollution from extractive industries. There are in addition severe backlogs in water licencing which is hindering economic growth. 

If our national water resources are not properly stewarded, we will undercut the very lifeblood of our economy. But there are no stewards in place. This needs urgent attention from the Minister.

Statement issued by Gareth Morgan MP, DA Shadow Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, December 1 2011

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