News24 reports that the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development presented its annual report to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services on Wednesday.

It revealed that 640 staff members had resigned during the 2022/2023 financial year. Zooming in on the "shortage of human capacity" referred to in the report, the ANC's Qubudile Dyantyi observed: “So it is one thing to say your problem is attraction. The problem that you have is that there is a stampede, there is an exodus, of people leaving the department in droves. They're getting out of the bus, they just can't wait to leave there. So, you've got a problem of retention.” He noted that the problem was not improving because, in the previous year, it was 486 who left the department, and the year before that, it was 420. "It looks like people have made a decision. They have decided that this is not a department of choice – not only those that are outside, those that are inside are literally leaving. So that, for me, is very serious," Dyantyi pointed out. The department's director-general, Doc Mashabane, responded that he could see why "someone will think people are running away", but the 600 persons who resigned “are not running away from public service, they take opportunities somewhere else." According to Mashabane, senior managers only left the department in "exceptional circumstances when people get promotions to other departments". Deputy director-general, Conny Mametja, explained that some employees resigned for "greener pastures", while others resigned to access their pensions, and then came back to the department later. She indicated: “We are really focusing on building the department as an employer of choice.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Gerber at News24 (subscriber access only)

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