As the year draws to a close, there are several high-profile executive IT vacancies up for grabs in the public sector.
The Department of Sport and Recreation has invited candidates to apply to become its IT director - a Pretoria-based position offering just under half a million rand a year.
A CIO position at Johannesburg Water is available, with the job profile consisting of "setting the IT division's vision and direction, building a high-performance organisation and championing change". The candidate will also be required to form "strategic partnerships with business executives, vendors and customers".
The Department of Agriculture is looking for a deputy director of information security, another Pretoria-based position, requiring the successful candidate to manage the total information security (IS) function in the department - security vetting, document security, communication and IT security.
More red tape
The Gauteng Shared Services Centre has advertised a post for an infrastructure and ICT operations manager, offering just over R500 000 per year for the Johannesburg-based position.
The SA Social Security Agency has two senior vacancies, for a senior manager of IS development, and a systems analyst.
Mthunzi Mdwaba, CEO of Torque-IT, says the key difference between an executive IT position in the public sector, as opposed to the private, is the higher levels of bureaucracy and "red tape" in the decision-making process, slowing delivery times.
"You do not have the Public Finance Management Act, Municipal Finance Management Act or the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act in the private sector, and corporate governance (with which private sector executives must work) is less stringent in its application," he explains.
The private sector generally always pays better, he adds. "This is why the guys do not stay for long in government positions, particularly once they have made a name for themselves."
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