Deputy Minister Thabang Makwetla hosts roll-out of Operation Hira in Polokwane, 2 Dec

Correctional Services leads in new public sector recruitment innovation

Media is invited to join the Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Mr. Thabang Makwetla, at a walk-about at the roll-out of Operation Hira in Polokwane on Wednesday, 2 December 2015.

Details are as follows:
Date: Wednesday, 2 December 2015
Venue: Jack Botes Hall (Corner Church and Bodestein Street), Polokwane
Time: 9h00

The special Department of Correctional Services (DCS) campaign, code named Operation Hira, was announced by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Adv. Michael Masutha, during his budget vote speech earlier this year, and launched on 21 September 2015 during Corrections Week. DCS has made a call for persons with critical, and scarce, skills to converge at various sites nationally for an unprecedented on-the-spot recruitment drive.

Advertisements, carried in a series of newspapers across the country, list doctors, clinical psychologists, professional nurses, pharmacists, artisans, construction project managers, social workers, educationists, engineers, IT specialists, state accountants, supply chain management specialists, technicians, internal auditors, legal admin officers, as well as occupational directed education and training development officers as some of the requisite skills required.

At the kick-off in the Western Cape on 19 and 20 November 2015, more than 770 applications of qualifying professionals in the field of health, infrastructure and administration were processed. Hundreds of applications were also processed in the Free State on 23 and 24 November 2015, and the Eastern Cape on 26 and 27 November 2015.

Following Polokwane on 2 and 3 December 2015, the roll-out will proceed to KwaZulu-Natal on 8 and 9 December 2015 and end in Gauteng on 10 and 11 December 2015.

Welcoming this initiative, the National Commissioner of Correctional Services, Mr. Zach Modise, said the special recruitment drive is intended to address high vacancy rates in the scarce skills categories of the department’s workforce and will assist in the department’s efforts to re-invent itself and strengthen the rehabilitation and social reintegration of offenders. Mr. Modise added that, through this special campaign, Correctional Services is also contributing in ensuring that jobs are offered to qualifying potential employees to help reduce levels of unemployment in the country, while also helping to speed up the professionalisation of corrections in South Africa.

Commissioner Modise said, although the Department has an overall vacancy rate of 8.43%, that is lower than the government-wide vacancy level threshold of 10%, it experiences higher vacancy rates in the scarce and critical skills categories and has set itself an ambitious target of a 2% vacancy level. He said the Operation Hira campaign seeks to turn on its head the current long turn-around times in the recruitment of employees by over 80%. The qualifying potential employees will be expected to submit their applications on site, with shortlisting and interviews conducted thereafter.

The schedule of the regional Job Fairs across all six regions of DCS, which will commence at 08h00 and conclude at 17h00 on both days, is as follows:

For media enquiries for each region, kindly contact the media contacts as listed above.

We wish to request media attending to please confirm attendance by by sending their full name, ID or passport number and mobile number to Mesia Hlungwani at Mesia.Hlungwani@dcs.gov.za or 082 070 6909.