[ Home ] [ Speeches & statements ]

The Eastern Cape Provincial Government has made four new senior appointments that helped it move from zero to over 25% of women's representation at the top management level. This places the EC among leading provinces in terms of the implementation of the Employment Equity Act, which is meant to ensure that suitably qualified employees from designated groups have equal employment opportunity.

Two of the appointees assumed duties today and were introduced by the Director-General, Dr. Mvuyo Tom, to the meeting of heads of department in Bisho today. The senior appointments include: the Deputy Director-General and Accounting Officer of the Office of the Premier, Mrs Nombulelo Hackula; Deputy Director-General and Accounting Officer for the Provincial Treasury (formerly called Department of Finance), Dr Marie de Villiers; Deputy Director-General for the Provincial Treasury Ms Mendo Dukada; and the Chief Director of Communication and Intergovernmental Relations, Mr. Phila Ngqumba.

In February 2001, the Provincial Administration was at zero percent with regard to gender representativity at the head of department level after the resignation of Mrs Lindiwe Msengana Ndlela of Sport Recreation Arts and Culture to join the national Department of Trade and Industry. Delivering his state of the province address in February, Eastern Cape Premier Makhenkesi Stofile committed the government to ensuring two appointments of women at the level of the head of department. Less than four months later, three women have been appointed at the level of Deputy Director-General.

Also in his policy speech the Premier also committed his office to strengthening of communications with appropriate staffing and now the Chief Director of Communication and Intergovernmental Relations has been appointed. He is expected to drive other outstanding appointments as well as the development and implementation of clear strategies for strengthening the provincial communication services and intergovernmental relations.

Welcoming the new members of his management team Dr. Tom said the government had begun to address a huge cry for leadership stability amongst key government departments as was raised even at the civil servants Imbizo sessions on 22 June 22 2001. Of the plus/minus 130 000 strong force of civil servants, 63% are women, yet when it comes to decision-making levels from middle management to top management the statistics were worryingly disproportionate, with women not represented at all in the top management since the resignation of the Permanent Secretary for Sport Recreation Grounds and Culture early this year. So the appointments have placed the province among leaders in this regard.

Commenting last week on these appointments the Eastern Cape Premier said: "We have outdone our own targets for the current financial year." Education MEC Mr Stone Sizani also announced that another women has been appointed as the Superintendent General of the Education Department, but refrained from giving full details until the necessary administrative issues were finalised including the signing of employment contracts. So the gender representation is expected to improve considerably.

Background:

Ms Dukada was a Director for Expenditure Control in the Department of Finance responsible for monitoring the expenditure of the provincial departments and their adherence to the allocated budgets. Dr de Villiers was a Chief-Director of Transversal and Transformation Services in the Office of the Premier in Northern Province which included co-ordination of special programmes relating to designated groups such as women, youth, people with disabilities, children as well as Human Resources and Internal Audit. Ms Hackula was a Group Purchasing and Service Manager at Daimler Chrysler in East London responsible for among others to ensure best supplier selection and benchmarking to ensure the competitiveness of DCSA. Mr Ngqumba was the Director of Media and Communication of the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) in Cape Town responsible for providing leadership for TRC media and communications services as well as being the TRC Chief Spokesperson.

Contact: Manelisi Wolela at 082-4147768 / 040-6392070

Issued by Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape

2 July 2001