Pretoria (Diplomat.so) - South Africa's National Treasury said on Thursday it had identified 4,323 suspected "ghost workers" on the government payroll following a comprehensive audit of its Personnel and Salary System (PERSAL), in what officials describe as a decisive step to curb fraud and reduce pressure on the public wage bill.
The announcement, reported by South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), follows months of data verification and interdepartmental coordination. Treasury said employees who cannot be physically verified during the nationwide process risk having their salaries withheld and their employment status suspended pending further investigation.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Treasury said irregular payments — including duplicate identity numbers, salaries paid to deceased individuals and bank account discrepancies — are costing the state billions of rand each year. To strengthen oversight, payroll records are being cross-checked against tax data from the South African Revenue Service, identity and biometric records held by the Department of Home Affairs, and banking information to flag anomalies.
Compensation spending accounts for nearly a third of consolidated government expenditure, making payroll integrity a fiscal priority. Alongside the audit, government is implementing an Early Retirement Programme.
Treasury confirmed that 7,687 applications were approved in the first phase, generating projected savings of R2.6 billion in the current financial year, with R3.7 billion allocated across departmental baselines for 2025/26 and 2026/27.
The issue of ghost workers has been a recurring concern. In 2025, Parliament engaged the Department of Public Service and Administration and the Auditor-General of South Africa to assess its scale, describing payroll fraud as a systemic risk to fiscal stability and public trust.
Officials said the verification process will continue over the coming months, with disciplinary and criminal proceedings expected in confirmed cases.
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