Latest news with #R200-million
Daily Maverick
14 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Maverick
‘Real people drawing fraudulent salaries' — crackdown looms on public sector ghost employees
It's time to end this 'orchestrated form of systemic corruption' draining state resources, says the chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration. Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Public Service and Administration says public sector workers should report in person to prove they're not ghost employees. 'A data audit alone is not enough. We are calling on this process to begin with physical in-person human verification audits for all government employees underpinned by biometric identification. Every person drawing a public salary must appear in person and be verified,' said committee chairperson Jan de Villiers (Democratic Alliance) in a governance cluster press conference in Parliament on Monday. 'The public has the right to know the names on the payroll correspond to individuals who really exist and who serve the public.' Read more: Ghost employees who haunt payrolls are a major occupational fraud hazard Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, in his Budget tabled last month, announced sweeping expenditure reviews of more than R300-billion in government spending since 2013, 'with the aim of identifying duplications, waste and inefficiencies'. Godongwana said the data-driven initiative would cross-reference administrative datasets to 'identify ghost workers and other anomalies across government departments'. De Villiers said the portfolio committee, following Godongwana's announcement in his Budget, had convened on 28 May to interrogate the 'persistent and deeply corrosive problem' of ghost workers in the public sector. He said the National Treasury could not tackle this challenge alone — it required a joint, coordinated strategy, which was now under way between the Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). 'We will reconvene with the Department of Public Service and Administration and the National Treasury in the third quarter of 2025 to receive a full progress report on the implementation of the joint ghost worker audit strategy. This should include details on the scope of these audits, preliminary findings and proposed enforcement measures,' said De Villiers. 'Orchestrated form of systemic corruption' Ghost employee fraud is among South Africa's most persistent public sector challenges. However, the total number of ghost workers — individuals who are fraudulently added to an organisation's payroll but do not actually work there — is unclear. In 2021, the government launched Project Ziveze to investigate and verify all Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) employees after material irregularities were uncovered within Prasa's ICT and payroll systems, indicating that there could be about 3,000 phantom workers. A preliminary report in November 2022 revealed that 1,480 employees could not be verified, while 1,000 others had resigned, Daily Maverick's Suné Payne reported. The agency is estimated to have saved about R200-million through the verification project. Last year, the Auditor-General of South Africa uncovered R6.4-million being paid to 'deceased and terminated' employees. The Public Servants Association (PSA) described this as a 'shocking misuse of public funds' and a 'gross violation of financial accountability'. And in May 2025, the Sunday Times reported that the Gauteng Department of Health had frozen the salaries of 230 employees who could not be verified. These are a handful of the reported cases of ghost employees. 'These are not invisible names on paper. Real people are drawing fraudulent salaries, and fraudulent money is being siphoned into the pockets of corrupt criminals,' said De Villiers. He said the department had disclosed that inserting a ghost employee into the payroll system 'requires collusion because at least three officials need to work together to create a ghost worker. This means that we are dealing not with random lapses in judgment, but with embedded criminal syndicates operating in our public institutions.' He added that the issue of ghost workers was 'not merely a payroll anomaly. It is a deliberate and orchestrated form of systemic corruption. It is organised crime within the state. And as a portfolio committee, tasked with oversight in the public service, the time for half-measures and talk shops is over. 'Let us be clear, the phenomenon of ghost workers is not an issue of administrative error. There are real people creating these ghost workers, reaping the benefits of siphoning taxpayer money into their coffers. 'Every ghost worker represents a post that could've been filled by a qualified graduate, a dedicated nurse, a teacher at a rural school or a social worker supporting the vulnerable. Every fraudulent salary paid is a step backwards in the fight for a professional, ethical and responsive state.' Widespread phenomenon De Villiers did not know how many ghost workers there were in the public service, but suggested, when looking at the known instances of ghost employees, 'that there are thousands'. He said the DPSA had confirmed before Parliament that ghost workers were present across all three spheres of government, including national, provincial and local governments, as well as government agencies and state-owned enterprises. 'The reality is every single department, state agency, level of government and state-owned enterprise that we have, probably has ghost workers on their payroll.' PSA spokesperson Reuben Maleka told Daily Maverick on Monday that the organisation supported a physical audit of ghost workers who 'rob' the public sector of its capacity to provide services to the public. 'The problem is widespread throughout the public sector — government departments, municipalities [and] government entities. The cleaning must happen across the sector,' said Maleka. In addition to calling for a physical audit, De Villiers said the committee would 'push for disciplinary and criminal action to follow every detection of ghost workers. 'We don't know how many ghost workers there are, we don't know who's involved, and not enough people have been arrested so far, to be quite frank. 'I am not aware, as committee chairperson, of a single person who has been arrested thus far in terms of the creation of ghost workers,' he said. De Villiers added that South Africa's ghost worker phenomenon was not only made possible by fraud, but by 'outdated and fragmented administrative processes and systems'. Daily Maverick contacted the National Treasury and the DPSA with queries. Comment will be added once received. DM
eNCA
3 days ago
- Business
- eNCA
Atlantis solar plant edges closer to completion
CAPE TOWN - Cape Town leaders have underscored that a solar plant being built outside Atlantis is aimed at driving down the price of electricity. The R200-million project is set to be the first City-owned solar plant supplying renewable energy to the grid. Officials have visited the site to inspect progress made since construction began in October last year. Construction on the seven-to-ten megawatt Atlantis solar photovoltaic plant is taking shape. A total of 2,400 solar panels are already in place. The first power from this plant is expected to be delivered near the end of this year.
Daily Maverick
20-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Eastern Cape cancer patients face more delays in getting critical chemotherapy
Patients, doctors and medical personnel face more chemotherapy disruptions after the Eastern Cape Department of Health said it would settle outstanding accounts with pharmaceutical companies only on Friday. The struggle for chemotherapy medication in Nelson Mandela Bay's state hospitals and at Frere Hospital in East London is likely to continue until at least the weekend, after the Eastern Cape Department of Health confirmed it would pay pharmaceutical companies that are owed millions of rands, only on Friday. With stock running dangerously low, oncologists, pharmacists and nurses have had to make excruciating decisions about who receives treatment and who does not, with some oncology units left with just one vial of the potentially lifesaving treatment. Medical staff have spent hours phoning across the province in a bid to source the drugs, particularly for children, to avoid cancer patients' treatment being interrupted. Patients' caregivers, who asked to remain anonymous, said they had been turned away when bringing children for chemotherapy. They said they had been told they would have to make a second trip when the chemotherapy drugs became available. On Monday, the Eastern Cape MEC for health, Ntandokazi Capa, promised that outstanding bills would be paid immediately; however, patients have been turned away and treatments halted. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has launched an investigation into the repeated interruptions of cancer treatment for public healthcare patients in the Eastern Cape due to unpaid accounts. Dr Eileen Carter from the SAHRC said the Democratic Alliance (DA) had laid a complaint with them about the matter. On Monday, Capa's spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo, said R200-million had been set aside for the procurement of essential specialist medicines, including for cancer treatment. He said R43-million of this would be used to settle debts with pharmaceutical companies. However, on Tuesday he said this payment would probably only be made on Friday. Salomé Meyer from the Cancer Alliance said they were deeply concerned about cancer services in the Eastern Cape. 'Livingstone Hospital (this includes the two cancer units at Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital), now for the third time this year, does not have oncology medicines, and this is barely two months after the start of the new financial year. Should this trend of non-payment of invoices to suppliers continue, the lives of cancer patients will be impacted severely,' she said. Meyer said the head of the Eastern Cape Department of Health, Dr Rolene Wagner, had committed to meeting with them to find workable solutions for cancer care services in the province. The oncology units in Gqeberha previously ran out of chemotherapy medication in January after the Eastern Cape Department of Health's account with a supplier was suspended due to a delayed payment.. At the time, the medicines that were in short supply were Docetexal injection vials and anastrozole tablets. There was a similar shortage in 2023, which was blamed on a stock-out at suppliers. DM
Daily Maverick
19-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
Cancer treatment interrupted for hundreds after Eastern Cape health department fails to pay medication bills
Desperate doctors have been forced to make decisions about who receives chemotherapy and who does not, with some oncology units left with only a single vial of the potentially life-saving treatment. The cancer treatment of hundreds of patients, including children, has been interrupted after the Eastern Cape Department of Health failed to pay suppliers for chemotherapy drugs. The province's MEC for Health, Ntandokazi Capa, has promised that outstanding bills will be paid immediately, but patients have already been turned away and treatments halted. Desperate doctors have been forced to make decisions about who receives chemotherapy and who does not, with some oncology units left with only a single vial of the potentially life-saving treatment. Medical staff said that as their urgent emails went unanswered, they spent the whole of Sunday frantically trying to borrow, exchange or buy chemotherapy medication from private pharmacists to avoid interrupting treatment for hundreds of patients. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has launched an investigation into the repeated interruptions of cancer treatment for public healthcare patients in the Eastern Cape due to unpaid accounts. Dr Eileen Carter from the SAHRC said the Democratic Alliance (DA) had laid a complaint with them about the matter. 'We have opened an investigation into the allegations received. It will now be undertaken as per our complaints handling processes,' she said. 'This is no longer a cash flow problem. It is a gross violation of human rights,' said the DA's spokesperson for health in the province, Jane Cowley. 'This ongoing crisis is not only jeopardising the physical health of cancer patients but is also taking a severe toll on their emotional and mental wellbeing. 'How does one explain to the mother of a 14-year-old boy that his treatment cannot continue because the department's non-payment has led the supplier to close their account? How does a doctor respond to a heartfelt letter from a 33-year-old woman, diagnosed with a curable form of Hodgkin lymphoma, who is begging for treatment so she can raise her three-year-old child? Impossible choices 'These are the impossible choices our healthcare workers are forced to face daily. Meanwhile, senior officials sit comfortably in air-conditioned offices, use state-owned vehicles for private errands and continue to protect a bloated payroll of politically connected individuals in non-essential posts,' said Cowley. The Eastern Cape health department spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo, acknowledged systemic problems in the public health sector, including the lack of permanent CEOs at Livingstone and Port Elizabeth Provincial hospitals in Gqeberha. 'But we are busy conducting interviews now,' he said. The hospitals last had permanent CEOs in 2018, when unions ran the management teams out of the facilities. Kupelo said MEC Capa had stepped in to ensure that R200-million was set aside for specialist medicines, including cancer treatment. 'The department wishes to confirm allocation of R200-million for the procurement of essential specialist medicines, including for cancer treatment. R43-million of this allocation will be utilised in paying pharmaceutical companies for cancer medicines that were owed from the last financial year. This payment is expected to be effected this week. 'Availability of all categories of essential medicines in all our health facilities is a priority, and every year, the department budgets over R2-billion for this purpose. We have strengthened our distribution plan, and our main medicine depots are strategically positioned to supply the entire province. These are the PE medical depot in Gqeberha and Mthatha medical depot in the OR Tambo district,' said Kupelo. He said cancer patients were receiving their treatment even though alternative medication had to be administered in some cases. 'This week, the department is expecting additional stock from Adcock Health, Fresenius (Kabi), Kiara and Macleods,' he added. He said two chief directors had been assigned to Gqeberha to accelerate service delivery at Livingstone and Dora Nginza hospitals. 'The MEC gave a clear message to her management. She was there. She received the problems. She has given them until the end of the month to implement the decisions they have taken. 'You don't want to run away from a big elephant,' he said. 'Hospital management knows that the lack of a district hospital makes things difficult in the metro, as specialist hospitals must act as a district hospital.'
Daily Maverick
18-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
The Africrypt files, Part 2 — The Cajee brothers' ‘escape' plan
In the second part of Daily Maverick's investigation into Africrypt, we show how Raees and Ameer Cajee appear to have executed what may be one of SA's swiftest financial exits in recent memory Part 1 of this story established the scale and structure of the cryptocurrency scam, and Part 2 investigates how the exit unfolded – and why, despite so many red flags, no major legal consequences have followed. Multiple passports and a shifting identity 'It was a centralised system pretending to be decentralised,' cryptocurrency analyst Wiehann Olivier told Daily Maverick. 'There was no oversight, no third-party security testing and no asset segregation.' Travel records and supporting whistleblower data reviewed by Daily Maverick confirm that both Raees and Ameer Cajee used Vanuatu-issued passports during their post-exit international travel. Our forensic investigation shows that the brothers travelled to the UK, then Dubai, Turkey and Zurich, in that order. This was notwithstanding the unfolding scandal involving their company, Africrypt. Although the total number of affected investors has never been confirmed by authorities, a July 2021 statement by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) estimated investor losses at just more than R200-million and noted that the company appeared to have solicited funds from 'several hundred individuals'. The scandal erupted when investors received a single email from the Cajee brothers on 13 April 2021, claiming that Africrypt's wallets had been compromised. It would be the last formal communication most investors ever received. Daily Maverick understands, based on travel logs in the forensic report, that the brothers departed South Africa within weeks of this email. Although their exact departure date remains unconfirmed, the Badaspex v Africrypt high court application confirms that liquidation proceedings had already been launched at that stage. Forensic records also show that Ameer Cajee obtained a second Vanuatu passport in March 2022 – while under a Swiss travel ban imposed in May 2021. This passport, issued under the name 'Ameer J Cajee', was acquired via a Dubai-based intermediary, despite his original Vanuatu passport being valid until 2031. Court records indicate that Ameer's appeal against the travel restrictions was dismissed in December 2022, and the ban only expired in late February 2023. Digital traces leaked by a whistleblower and reviewed by Daily Maverick show that shortly after the second Vanuatu passport was activated, activity tied to Cajee-linked devices and accounts began surfacing in jurisdictions including Qatar, Turkey, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This included logins to previously dormant Africrypt infrastructure, suggesting that someone with prior system access retained operational awareness. Forensic records show successful logins to legacy Africrypt admin panels in December 2023 using credentials tied to founder email accounts. Although this is not conclusive proof of international travel under a different identity, the timing, geographic spread and access patterns collectively suggest a deliberate effort to obscure physical location and digital footprint. The Cajees maintain that their systems were hacked. However, given that login credentials, devices and internet protocol (IP) traces match travel logs and known movement patterns, it appears unlikely that continued system access was solely the result of a third-party compromise. Given a right of reply, Ameer Cajee denied any wrongdoing related to passport issuance or use, and challenged any suggestion that the documents were unlawfully acquired or used. He described the claims as 'baseless, speculative, and deliberately misleading'. The Zurich connection: Ameer Cajee and the Trezor wallets The Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor in Zurich confirmed to Daily Maverick that criminal proceedings against both brothers are continuing on suspicion of money laundering. One brother was arrested in Zurich in November 2021 and later released on bail. 'We can only confirm that the Public Prosecutor's Office III of the Canton of Zurich is conducting criminal proceedings against the two brothers you mentioned on suspicion of money laundering,' the office said. Daily Maverick has verified through legal correspondence and whistleblower logs that Ameer Cajee was subsequently placed under supervised release at a hotel in Zurich. The Swiss prosecutor confirmed that Ameer had been released on bail to a 'designated residence'. Access logs from the hotel, leaked to Daily Maverick, show more than 40 badge entries linked to his digital ID, and photographs geolocated and timestamped confirm his presence on the premises. Sources close to the investigation claim that Ameer tried to access Trezor devices – hardware wallets – suspected of containing Africrypt's missing bitcoin. The Zurich Prosecutor's Office also confirmed that 'items related to a South African fraud case' were seized in Zurich. Though they declined to specify which items, investigators believe they included hardware wallets. Crypto disappearing act: coordinated disappearance, continued control While investors were still coming to terms with the announcement of a supposed hack, back-end activity on the Africrypt platform told a different story. According to access logs reviewed by Daily Maverick, administrative sessions linked to devices associated with Raees and Ameer Cajee remained active for at least 72 hours after the public announcement of the hack. These sessions accessed internal wallet balances, user tables and system-level controls. Login records show that the same internet connection was used multiple times during this period to access Africrypt's admin system. This connection was linked to a fibre line bearing subscriber information associated with the Cajee surname. The device used matched one previously linked to Raees Cajee and remained online throughout. Some key examples that contradict the narrative of a hack include: Admin logins recorded after 13 April 2021 from a device previously linked to Raees Cajee; An IP address associated with a fibre line registered to a subscriber bearing the Cajee surname; and Apparent continued access to wallet infrastructure and user data for at least 72 hours after the alleged breach. In their April 2021 announcement, the Cajees told investors that 'system, client accounts, client wallets and nodes were all compromised'. 'Their own login sessions were still active while they were publicly claiming to be locked out,' said one digital forensics consultant who worked with affected investors. 'They were inside the house while claiming it was being robbed.' In his right of reply, Ameer Cajee denied the allegations and demanded that Daily Maverick provide specific forensic logs or device records. We have chosen not to publish or share these in order to protect our sources. Digital clean-up on aisle three Although investor withdrawals were suspended and communication ceased, internal network logs suggest that background activity on Africrypt systems persisted. Logs show data transfers to encrypted Amazon cloud storage via virtual private network tunnels routed through Switzerland and the UAE. Devices previously linked to the Cajees remained active during this time. This activity spiked between 14 and 18 April 2021 – the same window during which major cryptocurrency withdrawals occurred. Daily Maverick conducted an independent blockchain analysis, verified by a cybersecurity analyst, which confirmed that at least R300-million in digital assets was moved from Africrypt-linked wallets during that period. Fourteen withdrawals were routed through Wasabi Wallet, a privacy-focused application that fragments and anonymises transactions. The outputs were then dispersed to platforms such as Binance, Kraken and Huobi, as well as to two unregistered exchanges believed to be non-KYC (know-your-customer) compliant. By the time that court-appointed liquidators obtained access to the wallets, they had been emptied. Forensic analysis of email metadata from one of the brothers' accounts shows a pattern of outbound encrypted messages and cloud sync requests referencing 'vault fallback ops' – language consistent with cold wallet backup transfers. While the contents of these messages remain inaccessible, their timing and destination strongly suggest that off-platform recovery mechanisms were activated. A curtain built to fall Africrypt operated as a closed ecosystem with no independent oversight. There were no third-party custodians, no external compliance mechanisms and no regulatory supervision. Fund custody, trading, onboarding and internal audits were all handled by the Cajees themselves. 'They created a fully enclosed ecosystem,' Olivier said. 'When you control the wallets, the DNS [domain name system], the servers and the message, there's no audit trail – and no one to stop you when you walk out with the keys.' Evidence reviewed by Daily Maverick suggests that Africrypt infrastructure remained accessible even after the platform was declared defunct. DNS pings, access telemetry and wallet monitoring indicate system use well beyond the shutdown. Since Africrypt's collapse, some regulatory gaps have been closed. In 2022, the FSCA declared crypto assets financial products, formally placing them under its supervision. In response to questions, the FSCA told Daily Maverick: 'The legislation declaring crypto assets a financial product does not operate retrospectively … the FSCA has not conducted any retrospective investigations.' By the end of 2023, cryptocurrency platforms in South Africa were required to register or shut down. The Financial Intelligence Centre also began classifying crypto service providers as accountable institutions, requiring compliance with KYC and anti-money laundering protocols. Although these changes offer a framework for future oversight, they come too late for those burnt by Africrypt. Ameer Cajee concluded his right of reply by stating that any publication of what he characterised as defamatory material would be met with legal action. What began in a regulatory void ended in a vanishing act. The Cajee brothers are gone – but their system left traces, and the questions it raised haven't disappeared. DM
