Johannesburg — ALTHOUGH government departments had met their race targets , progress had been slow in appointing women to middle and senior management posts, according to a Public Service Commission (PSC) state of the public service report.

The report, released earlier this year and distributed at an anticorruption summit earlier this week, said the public service was supposed to meet the gender equality target - set by the cabinet - by next year.

About 33% of senior managers in the public service were women, and women formed 35% of the total workforce. The public service has about four months to meet the 50% target. "If it took departments such a long time to achieve the first target of 30% by 2005, it may take them even longer to meet the new target."

The report said provinces such as Free State, Northern Cape and Western Cape would have an even bigger task as their representativity was still below the 30% the government had set for 2005.

Women formed 23% of Western Cape senior managers, 28% in Free State and 29% in Northern Cape.

North West was the leader with 35%, followed by Limpopo (34%) and Gauteng (33%).

The issue of gender representativity would need to be closely watched, said the report, adding that it was hoped departments would take decisive steps to accelerate the process.

Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi had suggested eight principles of women empowerment to be included in departmental action plans, and department heads were encouraged to implement them .

"These principles include the provision of adequate resources to advance gender equality, incorporating gender perspectives into all the work of departments and meeting equity targets," the report said.

The problem was even worse regarding the employment of people with disabilities. Of more than a million employees, only 0,2% were people with disabilities.

"The problem persists, with the modest target of 2% not being met."

PSC research had found that the public service needed to adopt a "unique and holistic" approach that required a review of circumstances that would make the employment of disabled people more favourable.

"Such an approach should not only focus on policies, processes and numeric targets," the report said. "There needs to be a conscious effort to effect a change of attitudes and behaviour so that the commitment to implement policies can be secured."

The research also found that few people with disabilities applied for posts. This, the report said, was due to lack of targeted recruitment by departments. However, there seemed to be reluctance on the part of disabled people to disclose their status. "This reluctance may be due to accompanying stigmatisation."

The report recommended that to improve the recruitment of disable people, awareness creation, targeted advertising, accelerating skill and improving resource allocation was needed.