No love lost between union and home affairs’ Apleni

The Public Servants Association (PSA) has welcomed the resignation of the director-general of home affairs, Mkuseli Apleni, who was “not fit” and whose legacy will always be tainted.

PSA deputy general manager Tahir Maepa said: “Apleni, who confirmed that he will be joining Discovery Banking, will unfortunately be remembered by the PSA for especially his unfair implementation of weekend working hours without compensation for employees of the department of home affairs. Apleni misused taxpayers’ money by dragging the PSA to every court, including the Constitutional Court, and still lost.

“After the experience the PSA has had with Apleni in recent years, the union sincerely hopes the minister will do proper due diligence on this appointment to avoid the same unwarranted drama that 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.”

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, who confirmed the resignation yesterday at a press briefing, said the replacement could take up to three months and there was a possibility of a cross-transfer appointment to replace Apleni.

The PSA also acknowledged the announcement by the minister about the successful upgrade of systems in the past two weeks with the assistance of Dimension Data in their 184 live capture offices. According to PSA’s understanding, this would help with better management and monitoring of offline systems.

“The systems in home affairs being off-line have unfortunately been ascribed by the public as officials being lazy. The negative impact of this situation has been immense, on both the public and officials. The PSA will monitor the progress.”

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