Home affairs speaks out on three-day shutdown
Home affairs has finally broken its silence on the assets that were seized and returned to its offices in the city, causing it to close its doors to the public for three days.
MBOMBELA – The Sheriff seized the furniture and computers at home affairs on May 26, only returned them on May 30. Department spokesman Thabo Mokgola confirmed to Lowvelder this week that a Chinese citizen had sued the department.
The man was arrested by home affairs after failing to produce the required documentation some time ago. He then sued the department for unlawful arrest, twice.
According to Mokgola, the court order that allowed the Sheriff to seize the assets was never supposed to be issued.
“While we were busy defending the first lawsuit, he opened another case on the same merit, under a different case number. It is illegal to sue for the same thing twice at the same time. We were not even aware of the second case, as we were defending the first. The court order that was issued to seize our assets was illegal, so they returned everything three days later after we interacted with the Sheriff and cleared everything up,” said Mokgola.
However, the office may close again. The department confirmed that the labour unions have served the department with a notice to strike on June 19.
In a recent press release, home affairs stated that the unions are objecting to the hours of work, as the officials are expected to work on Saturdays.
“This, according to the unions, meant extra transport costs for officials spread over six days, to include Saturdays, and costs incurred towards caring for members’ minor children, as well as leave allocation,” Mokgola concluded.
