Press Statement dated 23 July 2018
The Public Servants Association (PSA) welcomes the move by Director-General of Home Affairs, Mkuseli Apleni, to resign from the Public Service. The Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, announced at a media briefing in Pretoria today that Mr Apleni’s resignation is effective from end July 2018.
“The PSA has for a while made it known that Mr Apleni was not fit to head the Department of Home Affairs. Mr Apleni, who confirmed that he will be joining Discovery Banking, will unfortunately be remembered by the PSA for especially his unfairly implementation of weekend working hours without compensation for employees of the Department of Home Affairs. Mr Apleni misused taxpayers’ money by dragging the PSA to every court, including the Constitutional Court, and still lost,” said PSA Deputy General Manager, Tahir Maepa.
Minister Gigaba announced that the replacement process might take two to three months if the post is advertised by the end of this week. Mr Gigaba also said that the possibility of a cross-transfer appointment of a Director-General from another department is not being ruled out.
“After the experience the PSA has had with Mr Apleni in recent years, the Union sincerely hopes that the Minister will do proper due-diligence on this appointment to avoid the same unwarranted drama that Mt Apleni brought to the Department. What is required is a person who will have the best interests of workers at heart that will, in return, contribute to effective service delivery to communities,” said Mr Maepa.
The PSA also welcomes the announcement by the Minister to fill posts of Deputy Directors-General at the Department of Home Affairs to ensure an effective transition in administration.
The Minister also announced the successful upgrade of systems at the Department in the past two weeks and the appointment of Dimension Data to assist in assessing the networks of the 184 live-capture offices. This will monitor systems that go off-line from time to time, which is at an average of 20 days per month at the moment. The Department also increased the number of banks to issue smart ID cards and passports to reduce queues at Home Affairs centres.
“The systems in Home Affairs being off-line have unfortunately been ascribed by the public as officials being lazy and not wanting to provide services. The negative impact of this situation has been immense on both the public and officials. The PSA will monitor the progress in the coming weeks to determine the effect of this intervention,” said Mr Maepa.
Issued by Tahir Maepa, Deputy General Manager, Public Servants Association (PSA)