The Department of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal has told its employees to cease the habit of immediately challenging recruitment processes where they feel cheated and demand immediate redress.
The department says this delays the process of filling up vacant positions and employees should only challenge the process once everything has been completed.
The directive is contained in an internal circular dated 17 February 2025. The circular was compiled by Sabelo Mpangeva, the Director for Labour Relations and it was signed off by the Head of Department, Siboniso Mbhele.
“The Department has over the past months been inundated with grievances from officials within the department who were not shortlisted for positions that they applied for. In an effort to ascertain the reasons as to why they were not shortlisted, the employees lodge grievances.
“In all instances such grievances were lodged prematurely in that the selection process/filling of a post would still be in progress and not finalised,” the department said in the circular.
The circular concluded by saying that should the guidelines not be followed, the Directorate for Labour Relations will not investigate such a grievance until the recruitment process has been completed, and the affected individuals will be advised accordingly.
However, aggrieved employees said this could possibly be unlawful and it is meant to ensure that politically connected employees get appointed to critical departmental positions without any opposition from cheated candidates.
“It is clear that the circular is meant to protect some employees while the aggrieved ones have no immediate recourse even when they have evidence to show that they were cheated. This could mean that applicants with political connections would be hired without being opposed even if they are not qualified.
“Remember that they make it difficult to divulge records of interviews and other documents when they are challenged about their decision,” an insider said.
The spokesperson for the provincial transport department, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, said the Head of the Department was guided by the Human Resources policies in consultation with relevant HR practitioners in signing off the controversial circular.
“Where there are grievances, legal prescripts provide for legal relief and also labour relations regulations are designed to advance the interests of all role-players.
“Contrary to what is being suggested, the intention of the circular is to provide guidelines to employees and outline the process that they need to follow before lodging the actual grievance on a prescribed grievance form,” Sibiya said.
