Durban - The Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) said it had saved almost R200 million after ghost employees vanished from its systems.
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula provided an update this week, since the launch of Operation Ziveze in November 2021,aimed at validating employees and uncovering ghost workers.
Project Ziveze was launched to verify all Prasa employees after material irregularities were uncovered within Prasa’s ICT and payroll systems.
The project has four phases and is a work in progress, Mbalula said during a media briefing on Monday.
“The scope of the project also extends to validating whether the employment of foreign nationals is in line with the provisions of the law,” said Mbalula.
He said the initial exercise revealed that several Prasa employees where without valid ID’s and the necessary work permits as required by law.
In April this year, during phase 1, there were almost 2 600 ghost employees.
Mbalula said during Phase 1 all employees were invited on a voluntary basis to come forward with verified copies of their identity documents, qualifications and the Human Capital Management Employee Data forms.
“It was further emphasised that those who failed to present themselves for verification would have their salaries frozen.
“During this phase out of the 17 268 recorded employees on Prasa’s payroll system, 14 268 presented themselves for verification.
During the same period Mbalula said 1 199 people resigned.
“Failure by 3 000 employees to come forward for physical verification led to suspicions that there could be a number of ghost employees.”
IOL