Durban - The number of suspected “ghost employees” in the Msunduzi Municipality is now down to just 13.
Exco members were informed during a meeting on Thursday that more employees had presented themselves for verification over the past few days, and there were now just 13 employees who still needed to be verified.
This is down from 121 two weeks ago.
The municipality is doing a headcount of all its staff members to determine if all staff are present and accounted for.
Two weeks ago, the administrator, Scelo Duma, said he had given a directive to freeze the salaries of 121 individuals because they had failed to present themselves for the headcount despite being given several opportunities to do so.
The municipality took exception to the staff being described as ghost employees, saying this was misleading.
DA councillor Sibongiseni Majola said they had been informed that the head count was ongoing.
“Numerous reasons have been given, some of the people had not presented themselves because of poor communication and others had been away.
“We are told that this is an ongoing process. As long as people have credible reasons as to why they did not present themselves, they should not be penalised,” he said.
IFP councillor Thinasonke Ntombela said it was expected that the numbers would drop as people continued to present themselves.
“The latest report is that 13 people have yet to present themselves for the headcount,” he said.
He added that it was concerning that one of the reasons given by people was that they were on leave.
“Those are some of the things that must be investigated. This process started three months ago, it cannot be that a municipal employee was on leave for three months.”
Municipal spokesperson Thobeka Mafumbatha did not respond to requests for comment yesterday on the updated figure.
She had previously said that the employees yet to present themselves for verification would be required to give explanations as to why they did not use the opportunities they were given until the deadline.
“This process will be monitored closely until all employees have been verified. The municipality remains committed to rooting out corruption at all levels,” she said.
The Mercury