At least 36 000 ghost employees have been drawing a combined amount of R19 billion in salaries in the North West province.
ANC provincial secretary Dakota Legoete says these ghost employees have been undetected and have been exhausting the slim annual salary budget.
The discovery of the unlawful salary diversion to non existing civil servants followed an investigation by North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo who instructed the verification of every government employee in the province’s salary payment system.
The Premier revealed the figure of 36-thousand ghost workers at a SCOPA meeting on Wednesday.
The Democratic Alliance reacted with shock to the revelations and said it was unacceptable that ghost workers were receiving pension benefits and medical aid funds
