Home Affairs has unveiled a powerful new digital verification system aimed at rooting out “ghost workers” draining billions from the public purse in what the government says is a major breakthrough in the fight against payroll fraud and corruption.
The biometric platform, developed for National Treasury and linked directly to the national population register, will go live on June 15 and is expected to verify public servants in real time using facial recognition and liveness testing, a move Home Affairs believes could save taxpayers billions after ghost employees allegedly cost the state an estimated R3.9 billion in 2025.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said the system represents a turning point in the government's digital reform drive and could help expose fraudulent employees embedded within the public sector payroll system.
“If used consistently, this platform has the power to save South African taxpayers billions of Rands by leveraging the power of enhanced biometric systems to identify ghost employees and others involved in defrauding government payrolls,” Schreiber said.
The online verification portal forms part of a broader state-led crackdown on ghost workers after repeated audits uncovered thousands of suspicious salary payments across government departments. Earlier this year, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana revealed that more than 4,000 suspected ghost workers had already been identified in the public service payroll system.
The new platform uses Home Affairs trusted digital identity capabilities to conduct biometric verification checks against the national population register, allowing the government to determine whether employees physically exist and whether personnel records are legitimate, current and accurate.
The department said the initiative forms part of a wider digital transformation strategy aimed at strengthening accountability, improving governance and protecting public funds.
The verification process will initially run for two months across national and provincial departments as the government intensifies efforts to clean up the public sector wage bill, which has long been plagued by allegations of corruption, fake appointments and payroll manipulation.
The issue of ghost workers has increasingly been described by oversight bodies as organised corruption operating within the state.
Parliamentary committee chairperson Jan de Villiers previously described the phenomenon as “a deliberate and orchestrated form of systemic corruption”, warning that syndicates within government structures were manipulating payroll systems to siphon public funds.
Schreiber said the project demonstrates how Home Affairs’ digital transformation agenda is beginning to reshape governance beyond immigration and civic services.
“The application of the digital capabilities our reform work is now consistently delivering to this new use case, demonstrates that the digital transformation of Home Affairs is laying the foundation for an entirely rebuilt state, with the benefits being felt widely across government and society.”
The Star