Chairperson, there are 200 funded posts in the Human Resources Unit of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. The vacancy rate is 12%.
In answering the second part of the question, let me make the statement that the existence of vacancies in government departments is a challenge that government is rigorously addressing. In part the problem relates to the very process for filling a vacant post, which takes a long time. The Department of the Public Service and Administration is assisting departments in this regard.
Before I speak about the strategies we are employing to deal with this vacancy challenge, hon members, let me provide you with statistics on the post establishment in my department. There are 16 174 approved posts and of these, 13 654 posts are filled. The vacancy rate in my department is 12%. We have advertised 1 013 posts and we will soon be advertising the remaining 913.
For our part, we have identified particular weaknesses in our system which we are addressing. In our current strategy to deal with the issue of vacant posts, we have done away with the cumbersome structure of business units. Our department was divided into business units. We have reverted to the ordinary form of having subdirectorates.
We have capacitated our HR unit and, as a result, we are seeing improvements in filling posts - whereas in the past we would take six months, we now take three months. We have also decentralised the recruitment process to the regional offices. Initially recruitment was conducted by the HR unit located at the national office and, of course, we have sought specialist advice so as to find an innovative way of dealing with the challenges of filling vacant posts. Thank you.