Millionaire ghosts haunting South Africa
Another municipality in South Africa has been found to be paying millions of rands to deceased and fictitious beneficiaries, adding to a long list of ‘ghost workers’ taking taxpayer money into the void.
According to a report by Newsday, the eThekwini municipality has been flagged by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) for material irregularities relating to payments to non-qualifying beneficiaries.
The payments, amounting to R3.28 million by October 2022 and another R2.34 million likely to be lost in future audits, were made under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).
However, the AGSA found that the municipality made these payments to individuals who were ineligible for this programme.
This included fictitious beneficiaries, deceased beneficiaries, and beneficiaries employed in other state institutions, which would disqualify them for the EPWP positions.
Despite the municipal manager being notified of the irregular payments, and multiple investigations being launched, the AGSA said that nothing came of its recommendations.
At the time the eThekwini Municipality published its 2024 annual report, no disciplinary action had been taken against the responsible individuals.
Unfortunately, eThekwini is only one municipality in a long list where hauntings have been sighted.
In late 2024, the Polokwane municipality revealed that it had also lost millions of rands to ghost workers floating around its payroll.
At the time, a forensic investigation by Bowman-Gilfillan, instituted by the municipality, uncovered a loss of approximately R500 million due to various corrupt activities between 2008 and 2024.
Included in this was an amount of R128 million paid to municipal employees on questionable overtime — where one employee was on paid leave for over 5 years — and at least 44 ghost workers claiming salaries.
South Africa’s ghost problem has also spread across public services.
In Mpumalanga, it was revealed that workers in the province’s Department of Education were fraudulently paid over R6 million – despite no longer working there or being deceased.
In the Department of Health in Gauteng, 230 ghost employees were discovered.
In the police service, traces of ghost workers have also been detected, with the portfolio committee on police requesting an urgent audit of its payroll to exorcise them.
Ghost mafia
South Africa’s worker problem has been flagged multiple times by the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration, which has been calling for a full audit of the government’s payroll system.
Committee chair, Jan de Villiers, noted in June that the issue is not simply a payroll anomaly, but rather a deliberate and orchestrated form of systemic corruption.
This was echoed by the department itself, which noted that it would take at least three internal officials to get insert a ghost employee onto the government’s payroll system.
To enrol a ghost worker in the system, a department or entity would have to enrol the fictional person in the Personnel and Salary System (Persal) used by all state branches.
Administrative records for every person appointed need to be captured on this system, including salary and benefit details.
Once a user has captured a transaction with a financial impact on the system, authorisation and approval by a different user with the relevant role and responsibilities are required.
De Villiers said that a huge problem in South Africa is that various government departments and entities handle their staffing in a decentralised manner.
Each department appoints its own public servants, and there is no national guideline for conducting audits to identify ghost workers.
If South Africa is to successfully exorcise these phantoms from the database and prevent millions from being thrown into the void after them, a new approach would have to be taken.
He suggested combining “old school” tactics, like physical audits and workers proving they exist, and new technologies like artificial intelligence being implemented.
The DPSA, in partnership with the National Treasury, confirmed it is looking to conduct a much larger-scale audit of the state payroll.
However, it warned that with approximately 1.3 million individuals to cover, the process would be costly and resource-intensive.
With additional reporting from Newsday
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