Where government jobs are actually advertised
The Public Service Vacancy Circular is the weekly list of every vacant post in national and provincial government. It is issued by the Department of Public Service and Administration and published on gov.za, and it is free. If you are looking for a government job, this is the primary source. Everything else is a copy of it.
The circular comes out weekly except during December. The version on gov.za on 4 September 2026 is Publication No 31 of 2026, dated 28 August 2026. The link label on the page says No. 32 of 4 September 2026, so check the number on the front page of the document you download rather than the label.
What is in the current circular
Circular 31 runs to 344 pages and covers 16 national departments and all nine provinces. National departments in this edition include Agriculture, Basic Education, Employment and Labour, Forestry Fisheries and the Environment, Higher Education and Training, the National Prosecuting Authority, the Office of the Chief Justice, Public Works and Infrastructure, Small Business Development, Tourism, Treasury, and Water and Sanitation.
Closing dates in this edition sit in mid September.
| Department | Closing date |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | 11 September 2026 at 16:00 |
| Basic Education | 11 September 2026 |
| Employment and Labour | 11 September 2026, 16:00 walk-in and 23:59 online |
| Government Communication and Information System | 11 September 2026 |
| Government Technical Advisory Centre | 11 September 2026 |
| Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment | 14 September 2026 at 16:00 |
The circular also carries an amendments section, and it matters. In this edition Correctional Services withdrew a long list of parole board posts advertised in Circular 29, Electricity and Energy withdrew a director post from Circular 28, and Planning Monitoring and Evaluation corrected two reference numbers and extended the closing date to 4 September 2026 for applicants who had already applied. Read that section before you spend a night on an application.
What the posts pay
Salaries are published with every advert, so you can see the range before you apply. These figures are from Circular 31 of 2026.
| Post | Salary per year |
|---|---|
| Forestry services aid | R144 024 |
| Handyman or security officer | R170 226 |
| Forestry foreman | R201 093 |
| Senior administration clerk, level 5 | R237 453 |
| Administrative officer, level 7 | R338 106 |
| Chief human resource officer, level 8 | R413 001 |
| Assistant director, level 9 | R487 197 |
| Deputy director, level 11 | R932 292 |
| Director, national school nutrition programme | R1 317 384 |
Entry-level posts here need Grade 9, Grade 10 or matric and no experience. That is worth knowing if you have been told government work is closed to you without a degree.
The Z83 rules that disqualify people
Most rejected applications fail on the form, not the person.
You must use the new Z83, in force since 1 January 2021. Departments state plainly that the old form leads to disqualification. Download it from gov.za/documents or collect it from any public service department.
Complete Sections A, B, C and D in full. For Sections E, F and G, several departments accept “refer to CV”, but the question in Part F about conditions preventing re-appointment must be answered and the declaration signed. Page 2 must be signed.
Put the post title and reference number on the form. Submit a separate application for each post. Do not submit duplicates.
Send the Z83 and a detailed CV only. Do not attach certified copies of your ID or qualifications at this stage. Only shortlisted candidates are asked for certified copies, on or before the day of the interview. Foreign qualifications need a South African Qualifications Authority evaluation report, again only once shortlisted.
Watch the technical rules for email applications. Agriculture caps the CV at a 10MB PDF. Employment and Labour requires the Z83 and CV combined into one PDF and rejects zipped, IMG and JPEG files, and rejects applications sent to the wrong post address.
Departments do not acknowledge receipt. If you have not heard back within three months, or eight weeks at Employment and Labour, treat the application as unsuccessful.
Checks, assessments and one warning
All shortlisted candidates, including senior management, now sit two pre-entry assessments: a practical exercise and an integrity or ethical conduct assessment. Senior Management Service posts also need the Nyukela pre-entry certificate from the National School of Government before appointment, and up to three shortlisted candidates go through psychometric assessment.
Successful candidates face personnel suitability checks covering criminal record, citizenship, credit record, qualification and employment verification, and in several departments social media profiles. If a police clearance certificate is likely to come up, start it early, because it takes time.
The Department of Agriculture states that false or fraudulent qualifications will be reported to the police and a criminal case opened. Do not inflate a qualification on a Z83.
If you are offered a post, the appointment comes with a signed contract and an annual performance agreement. The basic rules on what must be in writing are the same as in the private sector, set out in the requirements for an employment contract.
Where to check
The weekly circular is at gov.za under Jobs, on the Government jobs this week page, with separate PDFs for national and provincial posts. The Department of Public Service and Administration publishes it at dpsa.gov.za. The Z83 form is at gov.za/documents.
Individual departments also advertise on their own sites, and public service vacancies appear in the Vuk’uzenzele newspaper. Teaching posts follow a separate provincial process, which is why tens of thousands of teaching posts sit vacant while the circular fills other roles.
A new circular is published most weeks, so check the number and date before applying.
