In a media statement, the department says a number of new routers and switches were bought in 2021 to help with the system being offline at Home Affairs offices. Hlophe’s duty was to also make sure the routers and switches were deployed to the relevant offices. He reported that he had fulfilled the duty of deploying them, however, it was discovered they remained in the storeroom. He was found guilty on counts relating to gross negligence and gross dereliction of duty.    

The statement details that Hlophe was responsible for Information Technology aspects that involve network outages (offline), system downtime, and IT capability, which affected the department’s commitment to service delivery and clean governance. It is reported that the Department of Home Affairs, together with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, as well as SITA, presented to the Joint Portfolio Committees on Home Affairs and Communications and Digital Technologies a plan to deal with system downtime in Home Affairs offices.  

SITA undertook to overhaul their networks whereas Home Affairs undertook the duty to buy a certain number of new routers and switches. The routers and switches in question have resulted in the department frequently experiencing system instability, which has negatively impacted frontline service delivery.

“The department’s service delivery charter depends on a stable IT infrastructure platform, networks and operating systems, to effectively perform its functions, rendering sustainable and reliable service capability to our frontline offices,” the statement reads. It is also explained that the failure of a senior manager to oversee and execute the abovementioned functions is serious misconduct.

Hlophe is charged with:

•Gross negligence or dereliction of duties in that he certified an invoice of SITA that included services not rendered;

•Contravention of National Treasury Regulation 8.2.1, gross negligence (alternative negligence) in that he authorised other expenditure against a credit note issued by SITA; and

•Gross dereliction of duties or dereliction of duties in that routers and switches were procured, but remained in storage, and were not deployed.

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