Gauteng health freezes 66 salaries in ghost employee crackdown

The Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) has frozen the salaries of 66 employees who failed to verify their identities as it clamps down on potential ghost employees.

The department has launched a Ziveze (Reveal Yourself) campaign to verify the identities of its 85 642 employees, ensuring that only legitimate staff members receive salaries.

The GDoH said it is taking steps to bust ghost employees out of the system with the province-wide programme.

Busting ghost employees out the system

“Ghost employees contribute to a high cost of fraudulent employee payments in organisations globally,” department spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners’ twelfth edition of their report, Occupational Fraud 2022: A Report to the Nations, ghost employees are among the most prevalent types of occupational fraud, and payroll fraud accounted for 8% of reported cases.

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The campaign is one of the initiatives started by MEC for Health and Wellness Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko to ensure the department stops wasting money.

“We have limited resources at our disposal and cannot afford to waste money on ghost employees while hundreds of healthcare workers are looking for employment and thousands of people require access to healthcare services. There is no reasonable employee who will object to be verified,” said MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko, in a statement.

As of Tuesday this week, the department had frozen the salaries of 66 unverified employees, excluding pending cases.

66 salaries frozen

The GDoH has encouraged every employee to physically confirm their identity by going to the Human Resources (HR) office at their workplace or any other approved verification location.

Those who continue to avoid the verification process risk permanent removal from the payroll, including criminal cases being opened against them.

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So far, 31 345 employees were successfully verified during Phase One between 14 October and 6 December 2024. Phase Two commenced on 13 January 2025, and the focus is on verifying the remaining 54 297 employees across all health facilities.

Phase 2 of the verification process commenced on 13 January 2025, and an additional 30 508 employees have been verified as of 24 February 2025.

This leaves a total of 23 789 employees who have yet to be verified. The verification team still has until 31 March 2025 to verify the remaining cohort of employees.

23 000k employees yet to be verified

The department added that the verification process guarantees that every employee is actively working and that their records correspond to the department’s official staffing levels.

“Through this initiative, the department seeks to improve accountability, prevent fraudulent salary payments and optimise resource allocation for quality healthcare delivery,” Modiba said.

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“Ziveze Campaign is a firm commitment to eradicating payroll fraud and ensuring that public funds are used responsibly to strengthen the healthcare system and improve service delivery.”