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Home affairs staff protest at 'migration'

HUNDREDS of concerned senior home affairs officials in Limpopo have accused the department of reintroducing the "separate but equal" policies of the defunct Bantustan administrations.

This follows the introduction of a programme known as "Migration".

"Migration" was introduced earlier this year in a move intended to improve the department's capacity for effective service delivery.

Senior managers said they were served with notices that they would be moved from their current workstations to areas where their home languages were spoken.

Limpopo and Gauteng have been clustered into a zone that will be managed by a zonal manager based in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, and Mpumalanga.

A concerned worker, who spoke to Sowetan on condition of anonymity, said the decision to move personnel was made without proper consultation with the workers.

He claimed that workers were supposed to report for duty at their new work stations but were reluctant to do so as the decision had been taken without their knowledge.

He said the problem with the system was that most of the employees had had their positions declared redundant and that, for example, Pedi-speaking people will report to a Pedi manager while Tsonga and Venda-speaking people have received letters notifying them to report to new offices where their languages are spoken.

Sam Moremi, the Limpopo spokesperson for the department, refused to comment.

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