{"id":835568,"date":"2025-08-21T11:05:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=835568"},"modified":"2025-08-21T11:05:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T09:05:34","slug":"new-mafia-group-targeting-unemployed-teachers-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/835568\/new-mafia-group-targeting-unemployed-teachers-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"New mafia group targeting unemployed teachers in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Groups that are part of organised crime within government are now profiting from teaching posts in South Africa, taking advantage of newly qualified and underemployed graduates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to the Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration Chairperson Jan de Villiers, following the announcement that the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) was investigating the matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation follows numerous allegations that teaching posts at schools are being sold for as much as R25,000 per post in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration has welcomed an investigation into allegations of ghost teachers and the sale of teaching posts in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, De Villiers said<\/a><\/strong> the council will lead a nationwide verification process of educators and learners, which is expected to be completed by the end of October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Villiers said the committee is deeply concerned about the issue, particularly because of its impact on state expenditure and corruption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy our committee is specifically concerned is because of state expenditure that is out of control,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe need for state expenditure reform is at the top of our minds because in order to uplift our society and help the poor and unemployed, we need to identify where taxpayer money is not only wasted but also stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described the sale of teaching posts as \u201cone of the most tragic and worst examples of wasted state expenditure.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to him, young and qualified teachers who have invested their own money, taken loans, and relied on taxpayer-funded subsidies to earn their qualifications now face extortion when looking for jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey come up against corrupt officials who want to be bribed just to give them a position they are already qualified for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of a bigger problem<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
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Chairperson Jan de Villiers<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

De Villiers linked this to the widespread problem of ghost employees across the state. \u201cIt seems like this is very much in line with the ghost employee scandal, where people who do not exist are created on the payroll.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the teaching sector, these ghost employees serve as placeholders so that posts can then be sold to victims of bribery,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He described this as an example of organised crime within the state. \u201cIt is not only stealing hard-earned taxpayer money but also service delivery, because teaching and education are core to the government\u2019s obligations to its people,\u201d said De Villiers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the committee fully supports the measures announced by the Minister of Public Service and Administration to conduct physical audits in the education sector and identify ghost posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Villiers said these scams typically require collusion among several state officials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe creation of ghost teaching posts needs at least three officials to collude, but in reality, it takes even more people to keep them active on the system,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe suspect the investigations will uncover a sophisticated crime network of public officials siphoning state funds into their own pockets, whether through fake employees drawing salaries or through selling posts to desperate young teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation, he said, amounts to outright extortion. \u201cTo ask unemployed graduates, who have already made huge sacrifices, to pay R25,000 just to secure a job is deplorable,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeachers play one of the most important roles in our country, yet they are being exploited in the most shocking way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stressed that ghost employees are not limited to the education sector. \u201cThis has gone under the radar for nearly 30 years,\u201d De Villiers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He highlighted that previous audits uncovered millions of rands being wasted each month on salaries for non-existent workers. \u201cThis is a problem across municipalities, provincial offices, and national departments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Villiers emphasised that accountability is critical. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t help just finding ghost employees,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople need to be prosecuted. They need to be referred to the NPA, and if found guilty, they must go to jail. When you are stealing from the state, you are not only corrupt, you are stealing money meant to empower the disempowered and to deliver services like education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the seriousness of the issue, De Villiers cautioned against assuming that all public servants are corrupt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe vast majority of state officials, teachers, doctors, and police officers are hardworking and honest,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a small minority of very organised criminals who have been tempted into this system of stealing. If we shine a light on them and bring them to justice, we can achieve massive transformation in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to De Villiers, the solution lies in strengthening service delivery through a professional public service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cannot empower and transform society without proper service delivery,\u201d De Villiers said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd you cannot have proper service delivery without a professional state service run by officials who are there on merit and who put the people\u2019s interests first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He concluded that rooting out ghost employees and prosecuting those responsible is essential for South Africa\u2019s future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we deal with this small group of organised criminals, we can unlock enormous potential. Proper service delivery is the answer to many of the challenges we face as a country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Groups that are part of organised crime within government are now profiting from teaching posts in South Africa, taking advantage of newly qualified and underemployed graduates.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":823875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853,23420,23419],"class_list":["post-835568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-south-africa","tag-the-education-labour-relations-council-elrc","tag-the-portfolio-committee-on-public-service-and-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835568"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835584,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835568\/revisions\/835584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}