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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO.: 1624
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 9 OCTOBER 2009
Mr S J F Marais (DA) to ask the Minister of Economic Development:
(1) Whether his department developed and adopted a policy providing
guidelines for the appointment of persons with a criminal record; if
so, (a) when was the policy (i) developed and (ii) adopted and (b)
where can a copy of the policy be obtained; if not,
(2) whether his department has any plans in place to develop and adopt
such a policy; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) whether his department does any pre-employment screening of potential
employees for criminal records; if not, why not; if so, what are the
relevant details;
(4) whether any employees with criminal records are currently employed by
his department; if so, (a) how many and (b) what is their (i) job level
and (ii) occupational category?
NW2030E
REPLY
1) The Economic Development Department is a newly-created department and
is in the process of developing staff guidelines. To date the Economic
Development Department (EDD) has not developed nor adopted a written
policy providing guidelines for the appointment of persons with a
criminal record.
2) EDD has no plans at this stage to develop and adopt such a policy.
Once it is more fully established, the development and adoption of
such a policy will be considered.
3) At present, the dti assists EDD with the appointment of staff. The
dtiâs human resources department verifies candidateâs highest
qualifications, confirms their South African citizenships, and checks
that their criminal and credit records are clear.
4) In terms of the verification reports received to date, no employees
have criminal records.