GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOST WORKERS

The state paid out more than R109 million in salaries to fomer civil servants after they had died, resigned, or retired from the Civil Service. This was the findings of a report of the Auditor General, which was tabled in Parliament in February 2001. Until August 1999 no less than 162 dead former civil servants continued to receive salaries totalling R4,6 million, without anyone noticing it. In the case of a further 495 workers who had died, salary pay-outs were not stopped immediately after their death, and a further R6,2 million was paid out. Another 1 325 workers continued to receive a salary from the State after they had resigned and left the service, totalling R65,2 million in pay-outs. 194 workers received two salary checks every month from two different departments, after they were transferred from one to the other, and 460 workers continued to receive a salary (totalling R20 million) after they retired at the age of 65. A further R10 million was lost because of state loans and securities given to civil servants, and which were not repaid after they had left the Civil Service.

BEWITCHED HEADMASTER

Mudubakangwana Geoffrey Madonsela (43), the headmaster at Ncakini Secondary School near Nelspruit, where he was in charge of more than 800 pupils, attended school for three days in 1999 and only 18 days in 2000, according to official records.
His excuse? That he had been bewitched by his "enemies" with a curse that made him feel sick whenever he arrived at school.
He was paid R128 142 a year, which means that Madonsela was paid a whopping R42 714 a day for the three days he worked in 1999.
"I am suffering from some illness that no one is able to understand. Medical doctors could not find out what I was suffering from so I consulted different traditional healers from far and near, but I remain sick. I now know that some people who are jealous of my position as headmaster are responsible for my ill-health" he said.
He said his illness started in 1997 with severe pain in his left hand for which X-rays could find no cause. His hand and other parts of his body began to ache when he entered the schoolyard, he said. "This left me with no other option but to report to work in the morning and then leave for my home" added Madonsela, claiming he worked from home.
Mpumalanga education ministry spokesman, Peter Maminza, said the department had a dossier of complaints against the headmaster from staff and parents.
"There was complete chaos at the school. Late-coming, absenteeism and other bad habits went unchecked. Administration suffered greatly because of Madonsela's truancy" said Maminz, who fired Madonsela from his headmastership.
Pupils like Nomalanga Nkosi say they do not understand why he was fired. "We know he is sick. His sickness starts immediately when he arrives at the school in the morning. There is proff that some teachers have bewithced him on order to get his position", said Nkosi.
The school recorded a 67,0% failure rate in matric in 1999.

UPHOLDING THE CUSTOMS

Neighbours of Management Consultant Ms Pam Pokane in the posh suburb of Craighall Park in Johannesburg were amazed when a cattle truck stopped and unloaded an ox in March 2000. Realising that it could not be milked, they discreetly made inquiries.
Pokane said that the ox was to be slaughtered, according to her culture.
The neighbours contacted the Johannesburg City Health Department, the Police, and the SPCA. The Health Department said that there was no regulation forbidding the slaughter of cattle at home. The Police came and made certain that there was no maltreatment of the ox, and left, laughing. The SPCA came to ensure that the ox was well looked after and would be slaughtered "as humanely as is possible". Later a City Counciller also turned up, but left satisfied after inspecting the ox.
The next day five men approached the ox. One stabbed him with the knife, and the animal sank down, bellowing - a certain sign that the forefathers accepted the sacrifice. Then the animal's jugular vein was quickly cut. The next day two hundred members of the family and friends celebrated the thanksgiving ceremony with Pokane, devouring the ox.

VIVA LE DIFFERENCE

Dr Zola Skweyiya, Minister for Public Service and Administration, explained in Parliament the difference between a "ghost" civil servant and a "supernumerary" civil servant.
Although both get paid, the difference is that a "ghost" civil servant does not come in to the office, while the "supernumerary" comes in to the office and then does nothing - except play cards and use the telephone.
The "supernumerates" are actually more expensive, because they incur costs. Both categories exist because, in the process of the rationalisation and transformation of old race-defined government structures, not everyone has yet been allocated jobs.

GHOSTBUSTERS

Ismail Meer, ANC MP from Kwazulu-Natal, proposed to the legislature during November 1996 that it should establish a special committee to investigate ghost public servants, ghost government cars, and the impending Cemeteries Bill.
He told the house the committee should influence the ghost population to enforce rigid birth control measures to reduce the spirit population in the province and eventually put all the ghosts in their burial places.

CHILD LABOUR

A computer investigation to KwaZulu-Natal's ghost civil servants found that the data base contained the names of thirty workers of respectively one, two, three and four years old on the paryoll. Besides, the age of a number of civil servants ranged from 6 to 94 years.

GHOST THIEF

An ATM (automatic teller machine) belonging to Saambou Bank, holding R22 000 in cash, was stolen from Wachthuis, headquarters of the SA Police Services, in Pretoria during January 1997. No trace of burglary could be found at any of the doors or windows of the building, but the ATM disappeared overnight from under the noses of the police staff and guards.

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