Two Pinetown Home Affairs officials who were fired after a man committed suicide over his inability to obtain an ID to secure a job claim they are scapegoats.
It has also emerged that the widespread belief that 23-year-old Skhumbuzo Mhlongo's application form was torn up by one of the officials was incorrect and that the department never set the record straight.
The officials are appealing against their dismissal which was announced by Home Affairs Minster Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Monday.
According to a disciplinary hearing transcript, Mhlongo's application form is intact.
Mhlongo, of Nqetho Reserve, near Hillcrest, committed suicide in August, sparking outrage and an investigation.
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He was said to have been mistreated, his application form was torn up in his face and he was asked to pay a bribe at the Home Affairs office in Pinetown.
Yesterday, the main accused said she had become the department's "scapegoat".
Reports after Mhlongo's death quoted Dlamini-Zuma as saying: "The... person conducting the interview was not satisfied with the information, said this young man was lying and tore the papers and threw them at him, and said that clearly he was not even South African and used this derogative word that they use for foreigners, and basically chased him away and condemned this young man to no life."
But at the disciplinary hearing, a department witness named "Mr R Oppelt" said Mhlongo's application had not been thrown away.
The transcript, a copy of which is in possession of The Mercury, reads: "He was further asked why they (the department) did not retract the statement after it was realised that the forms were not torn... Mr Oppelt was of the view that... the department could not be expected to retract statements not issued by them."
The main accused said she had not formally interviewed Mhlongo.
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