MINISTERIAL AND DG TASKS

Ministerial and DG Tasks (M&DG)

What are M&DG Tasks?

M&DG tasks consist mainly of correspondence received from the public, other Departments, Ministries, or institutions. This correspondence is registered on a Departmental Control system, called Magic.

Magic allows the Directorate to place on electronic record, the nature of the document, who it is from, a return/due date by when the enquiry must be dealt with, and a specific instruction, i.e. draft reply, or disposal.

The instruction tells the relevant functionary what needs to be done in order to address the enquiry. Magic allows the Directorate the scope to be able to track the progress made on a specific query. The query is provided with an electronic tracking number e.g 200200100, which is then used to facilitate information regarding the task.

Once an enquiry has been registered on the Magic System, it is referred to one of the Branches of the Department as a Ministerial or DG task.

What trail does an enquiry follow?

An enquiry is either received in the Ministry or the Office of the Director-General.

If the enquiry was addressed to the Minister, the Ministry will refer it to the Department with a specific instruction on how to deal with it. Upon receipt of any such a Ministerial task, the Directorate: Executive Services will determine which linefunctionary in the Department is in the best position to deal with it. The task will then be registered on the Magic system and be delivered to that person. The same process is followed in the case of enquiries addressed to the Director-General.

In many instances, once a task has been completed by the specific functionary, it will follow a route back to the Minister or the Director-General, in the form of a submission.

Which Tasks flow back to the Director-General and Minister?

The specific instruction given in respect of a task, will indicate whether the task is one that can be finalised by the relevant linefunctionary, or whether it will have to be submitted (by means of a formal submission) to the DG or the Minister for finalisation.

What are the most commonly used instructions?

The instructions most often utilised are:-

Draft Reply: when this instruction is used, there will be a clear indication whether the draft reply must be prepared for the DG, Deputy Minister or Minister's signature.

Disposal: in these instances the functionary can directly deal with the task, by taking up the matter with the enquirer, in accordance with the manner instructed by the relevant Deputy Director-General.

Advice: here the functionary must provide an input on the matter to either the Minister or Director-General, in the form of a memorandum. Functionaries may also prepare draft replies in such cases if they are of the opinion that a formal response should be send to the enquirer.

Who finalises a Task?

Once a functionary has prepared the necessary documentation in response to a specific enquiry, the submission is referred to the Minister or DG, and once the Minister or DG has approved and signed the necessary documentation, the task is considered finalised. It is only the officials of the Directorate: Executive Services, who may indicate that a task has been finalised on the Magic M&DG system.

This is done by entering the Minister or DG's comments and date of signature, under the Finalised Tasks section of the Magic system.

Who can you contact for further information?

Adv R A Bester
Mr R J F van Heerden
Mr T R Tladi
Ms T A Malepe
Contact Details