Nearly 6 000 public servants in KwaZulu-Natal are being investigated and could be arrested for fraud and corruption involving social grants.
The officials from the health, home affairs and education departments have been receiving grants fraudulently which have cost the province millions in taxpayers' money.
The majority of the government employees under investigation have made illegal claims for child support grants and care dependency grants.
Provincial Minister for social development, Meshack Hadebe, has vowed that his department will intensify its efforts to crack down on fraud and corruption.
"We are losing millions each year as a result of this fraud and corruption which is so widespread.
"I am planning to meet the national minister because we have a serious problem in this province," he said.
Of the 6 000, more than 5 000 have been collecting child support grants, 350 cashing in on disability grants and more than 100 collecting old age or pensioners' grants.
Recently, a special unit appointed by the national Department of Social Welfare announced that it would remove more than 1,5-billion irregular grants from the system.
Vusi Mahaye, spokesperson for the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa), said that more than R14-million is being recovered from the public servants who were receiving grants unlawfully in the province.
"There are other cases that are still under investigation that do not form part of this amount," he said.
Sassa was established in 2006 to address maladministration and to combat fraudulent activities in the administration of applications, the approval and payments of social grants.
Mahaye said the agency was working with the Special Investigations Unit and the South African Police Services to root out fraud.
Hadebe said a number of officials had been arrested - some were found with illegal affidavits, medical certificates and documents from the home affairs department.
He said the department also wants the Assets Forfeiture Unit to seize the assets of those officials who are found guilty of fraud or corruption.
"We have found that many of these fraudsters are living way above their means."
In terms of the law, grants are only awarded to applicants whose financial resources are below a certain level.
According to Sassa, each applicant has to undergo a means test before qualifying for those particular social grants.
Mahaye said that government employees who earned low salaries could apply for a grant.