PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO: 1582
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 9 October 2009
QUESTION PAPER NO: 20
DATE OF REPLY: 16 October 2009
Mr N J van den Berg (DA) to ask the Minister of Communications:
(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?
NW1988E
REPLY:
1) The Department has not developed and adopted a policy providing
guidelines for the appointment of persons with a criminal record.
2) The Department intends to develop a Property Check Policy that will
complement the Recruitment and Selection Policy, and this will also
address the issue of criminal and credit records, among others. This
policy will be aligned with any directives provided by the Department
of Public Service and Administration in this regard.
3) The Department conducts prescreening for all potential Senior
Management Services (SMS) members. This pre-screening involves a
security clearance by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). For non-
sms members the Department relies on the information required on the
Z83 form with respect to declaration of criminal records. In
addition, during interviews, all interviewees are asked to declare
issues such as outstanding disciplinary hearings and criminal records.
4) (a) According to the screenings done by NIA on SMS members, the
Department has one staff member with a criminal record.
(b) The person is (i) at level 13 and (ii) the occupational category
is director.