Whites 'not interested in working for government'

White people are not interested in working for the government, according to Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza's office.

The premier's spokesman, Zibonele Mncwango, said this week: "Maybe they are just not interested in working for the ruling ANC. We sometimes advertise posts mentioning specifically that non-Africans are encouraged to apply, but they don't."

Mncwango was responding to criticism of provincial governments' hiring practices.

John Kane-Berman, a consultant to the South African Institute of Race Relations, said provinces failed to fill vacancies when the only available candidates were white.

The 2011-12 auditor-general's report said municipalities were in trouble partly because they left key positions vacant for too long. It said at least 46 of the 208 appointed municipal managers did not meet any of the "prescribed competency requirements".

Kane-Berman said not all municipal or provincial appointments were unqualified, "but a great many are".

Mncwango said Kane-Berman's claims sounded racist and added that the municipal managers of Emakhazeni [Belfast] and Emalahleni [Witbank] were whites.