Home Affairs still grappling with downtime as DG exits
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba says the department is still struggling with power cuts as he confirmed the departure of long-serving director-general Mkuseli Apleni.
Gigaba says the downtime experienced by offices around the country is “a matter we are gravely concerned about”.
He made the comments at Apleni’s final press conference on Monday.
Apleni resigned to pursue other career opportunities. His resignation is effective at the end of July 2018.
In his final official words, Apleni thanked Gigaba for his guidance after working in his department for close on 10 years.
“The driving force for me and the colleagues was simple; the understanding that the services of Home Affairs you can’t get them anywhere. We are a monopoly – that was (the) pressure.”
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Gigaba confirmed that some of its offices are experiencing downtime for up to 20 days a month due to power cuts.
“Members of the public view them (the department’s officials) as lazy, unwilling to work, just bumming around when in actual fact there is an objective fact in front of them,” said Gigaba.
He vowed that the situation will improve following the green light given by Cabinet for the department to appoint its own service provider to deal with electricity issues.
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“We affect the people standing in the queues because they have taken lunch hour from work, others take an entire day off from work only to be told that the system is offline, 'please come back tomorrow.”