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‘I worked well with Gigaba’: Apleni resigns from home affairs

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Mkuseli Apleni, former director general of home affairs with home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba at a media briefing in Pretoria. Picture: @SAgovnews/Twitter
Mkuseli Apleni, former director general of home affairs with home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba at a media briefing in Pretoria. Picture: @SAgovnews/Twitter

Mkuseli Apleni is moving on from his turbulent career at home affairs with no hard feelings, saying he worked well with Minister Malusi Gigaba.

Apleni, now the former director-general of home affairs, will be taking up an executive position at Discovery Bank as of August 1, and will report to the chief operating officer.

Gigaba confirmed on Monday morning that Apleni had tendered his resignation and confirmed that it would be effective at the end of July.

Gigaba praised Apleni for his contributions to the department. He said that Apleni had improved the annual performance targets of the department by 89% since joining it in 2010. Gigaba also said finding a suitable replacement for Apleni could take around three months.

Apleni expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to work at the department, and said that he and Gigaba had worked well together.

His relationship with former home affairs minister Hlengiwe Mkhize was rocky.

Mkhize briefly headed up the department from March 31 2017 to October 17 2017. She suspended Apleni in September 2017, accusing him of insubordination and incompetence

Apleni fought the accusations and turned to the courts, who ruled that ministers didn’t have the power to suspend or fine deputy-generals, and that those powers only rested with the president, who was Jacob Zuma.

Apleni was reinstated in November.

The Fireblade Aviation incident also added to the tensions between the two, when the company, owned by the wealthy Oppenheimers, sought to operate a private international customs and immigration service from O R Tambo international airport, which Apleni said was unconstitutional. Mkhize on the other hand wanted the Oppenheimers to be granted a licence.

“My view is that it is unconstitutional to give a preference of this kind to one entity without a competitive bidding process. I have taken the view, which was supported by the former minister, Malusi Gigaba, that any facility of the sort must be subjected to a competitive bidding process as required by the Constitution and the Public Finance Management Act,” Apleni said at the time.

The high court in Pretoria eventually ruled in favour of the Oppenheimers, and Fireblade Aviation began its customs and immigration service this year when the first international flight was processed in February.

The Democratic Alliance welcomed Apleni’s resignation, but said he would not absolved for his role in the Gupta naturalisation saga.

The party’s Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, Haniff Hoosen, said the DA would continue to “hold him accountable” through the parliamentary inquiry looking at the circumstances surrounding the early naturalisation of five Gupta family members.

“During his nearly 10-year tenure, he presided over a litany of disasters such as granting several members of the Gupta family citizenship and compromised national security when the Gupta wedding guests landed at the Waterkloof Air Force Base in 2013,” Hoosen said.

“This shows high disdain for the rule of law and Apleni must fully account for being part of the cabal that sought to sell our country to the highest bidder.”

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