Public Service and Administration Minister Mzamo Buthelezi said departments physically verified 809 086 employees and identified 891 potential cases for focused investigation.
Public Service and Administration Minister Mzamo Buthelezi said a total of 891 potential “ghost workers” were identified since September 2025 after 131 departments conducted physical verification of over 800 000 civil servants.
Buthelezi revealed this when he was responding to parliamentary questions from DA MP Jan de Villiers, who asked about “ghost workers” identified by his department since the activation of the real-time employee verification portal.
He said the results arising from the activation of the real-time employee verification portal were not available to his department for reporting, as the portal is under the custodianship of the National Treasury.
The minister said the Department of Public Service and Administration, however, has undertaken its own coordinated physical employee verification exercise across the public service in terms of Circular 36 of 2025 during the seventh administration
