Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal Initiates Employee Verification to Enhance Accountability

The Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal has embarked on an intensive programme to verify all its employees in an effort to deal with “ghost workers” in the department.

The programme is also aimed at ensuring that only legitimate employees are being paid through the department's Persal systems.

This initiative comes after there were several instances where salaries continued to be paid long after employees had exited the department, due to retirement, resignation, or death, as a result of delays in administrative terminations.

The Department’s MEC, Sipho Hlomuka, said that they managed to identify these discrepancies.

The department has engaged the Provincial Treasury to assist with the necessary IT infrastructure to facilitate the verification exercise that ensures the quality and integrity of the process.

The verification was set in motion with the entity's head of department's, Nkosinathi Ngcobo, credentials being verified on Thursday.

Ngcobo expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the employee verification programme and noted that he was confident the initiative will have a positive impact on the department.

He further emphasised that should any “ghost employees” be identified, measures were already in place to ensure the matter was dealt with swiftly and that all guilty parties will face legal action.

According to the department, the verification programme will be adopted as a national programme by the Department of Basic Education.

The programme was expected to be implemented across the country under the leadership of the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC).

Hlomuka welcomed the national support, noting that this approach will help standardise processes across the education sector.

“The outcomes of the verification will guide future policy decisions and preventative measures.

"We are confident that the verification process will enhance transparency, accountability, and good governance,” Hlomuka said.

The MEC also called for full cooperation from all department employees to ensure the success of the initiative.

Further details about the workings of the verification process were expected to be communicated in due course.

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) has welcomed the Education Labour Relations Council’s (ELRC) appointment to lead the verification process.

SADTU warned that ghost workers were not just an administrative hiccup; they represent orchestrated criminal syndicates that siphon scarce public resources into private pockets.

“Every phantom name on the payroll diverts funds away from real educators and learners, starving classrooms of materials, crippling learner support programmes, and undermining hard won gains in educational equity.

"The syndicates steal the future of our nation,” said SADTU's general secretary, Dr Mugwena Maluleke.

The union also linked ghost appointments to the illicit selling of teaching posts, which further eroded professionalism and merit.

“When positions are sold to the highest bidder, capable educators are shut out, morale plummets, and our collective mission to deliver quality public education is compromised.

“These linked practices of ghost workers and selling posts form a network of corruption that inflicts harm on our most vulnerable children and erodes the foundations of democracy in our schools,” Maluleke said.

DAILY NEWS