Home Affairs staff caught using cellphones handed written warnings
The Department of Home Affairs says the staff members who were caught on camera using their cellphones at the Tongaat office instead of helping customers who'd been queuing for hours, have been given written warnings.
Video footage of the officials went viral on social media last week.
The department says it's concluded its probe and has established the office experienced a power failure on the day the video was taken.
It says due to the outage - officials weren't able to carry out their duties for around 20 minutes.
The Department's Siya Qoza says clients were aware that there was no electricity in the building at the time the video was taken.
He says both officials claim they'd been dealing with emergencies on their cellphones at the time.
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"However, the department has a policy that prohibits the use of cellphones at our front offices. The colleagues have been reprimanded and they have been given warnings," Qoza said.
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