More than R140 million in salaries paid to suspended government employees

Government has paid more than R140 million in salaries to employees who have been placed on precautionary suspension during the 2024/25 financial year.

This is according to public Service and Administration Minister Mzamo Buthelezi, who was accounting to the National Assembly during the Governance Cluster question and answer session on Wednesday.

Buthelezi said as of the end of the fourth quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, national departments paid R50 945 064 to the suspended employees while provincial departments spent R90 469 562.

The minister was responding to Al Jama-ah member of parliament (MP) Shameemah Salie, who had asked what the current estimated total cost of ghost employees and suspended employees on the payroll of government was.

Ghost employee audit still incomplete

Salie also asked what work had been done prior to the Budget Speech to recover funds lost from paying fraudulent salaries.

Buthelezi said the total cost associated with ghost workers had not yet been determined.

“This cost will only become known once a comprehensive employee verification process across public service has been completed and the financial implications accurately calculated,” he said.

“However, the Department of Public Service and Administration and National Treasury are jointly leading this exercise, and once the report is finalised it will be shared with the relevant parliamentary committee and this house.”

Salie further said the issue of ghost workers had been an ongoing battle for decades and had resulted in millions being lost per yearly.

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“We urge the minister and all relevant departments to ensure an audit across government and to provide frequent feedback on findings surrounding ghost workers, prosecution of and recovery of funds from these entities,” Salie sad.

Buthelezi defends ‘bloated’ public service wage bill

ANC MP Pumelele Ndamase asked what the overall impact of ghost workers was, in which departments they were mostly found and whether Buthelezi’s department is actually aware of how ghost employees end up being in the employ of the state.

The public service is often accused of being bloated, Ndamase said, while simultaneously struggling to meet the demand of South Africans.

In response, the minister said while it is widely believed that the public service wage bill is too high, the department has a different view.

“We do have many vacant posts in the department and many departments who are struggling to even employ because they have a shortage of staff members, because the government cannot afford to pay their salaries,” Buthelezi said.

“So, the issue of a bloated public service wage bill is not necessarily the case, but we do appreciate the fact that we view that as such because our economy is not growing at the rate that it should.”

He said the challenges of the country’s stagnant economic growth had a bearing on the expenditure where public employees are concerned.

Thorough investigation

With regard to the departments affected by ghost employees, Buthelezi repeated that there were currently no statistics, but the department is engaged in a thorough investigation.

Before posing his question, Rise Mzansi’s Stanford Makashule Gana Minister said the “ghost employees” should be referred to appropriately – public servants who “give themselves more than one salary”.

ALSO READ: R6 million in salaries paid to ghost workers in Mpumalanga

‘Trigger-happy managers’

Gana finally asked if the Buthelezi’s department is considering attaching cost orders to managers who are trigger happy and quick to suspend public servants who don’t deserve to be suspended.

“As a department, when it comes to managers who simply suspend employees willy-nilly, we have come up with a directive that says whenever there is an employee that is alleged to have committed a particular offence, instead of suspending that person and continuously get a salary, that person must be transferred to another department or unit,” Buthelezi responded.

He said he was not aware of public servants earning more than one salary and that the department is putting systems in place to curb wastage.

Redundancy audit

Heloise Denner, FF Plus MP, asked if the department had considered or assessed the feasibility of implementing an audit to identify redundant posts within the public service in order to reduce costs.

In response, the minister said the department is already putting systems in place to deal with redundancy.

He said that the departments need to first consult the Department of Public Services and Administration whenever there’s a post to fill.

“[This is so that] we look into whether or not there is a need for that particular post or if it means they redefine their organogram,” Buthelezi said.

“[They must] also consult with National Treasury to see that there are funds available so that we prevent departments from employing people for posts which do not add any value into the system,” he added.

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