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Sadtu in KwaZulu-Natal has called for the dismissal of members of a rival union who conducted an illegal strike in 2010.

Nearly 600 employees of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education have until the end of this month to present themselves to the relevant officials or risk being declared ghost staff and face criminal charges.

On Monday, the department issued the warning as its two-year-long employee headcount process wound down, with six people already having been axed as of December 31.

Department spokeswoman Mbali Thusi would not say whether they were teachers or administrative staff, for fear of compromising further internal investigations. Nor could she say how much money they had cost the department.

She did, however, confirm that the police would be called in at a later stage, as the actions of the six were “tantamount to fraud”.

The department’s staff complement is more than 100 000. Thusi said the small number of transgressors was testimony to the success of internal controls. However even one ghost employee was one too many.

After the first phase of the headcount in July 2010, it was found that more than 3 000 employees had not come forward for “varying reasons”.

The second phase of the project was conducted in December that year to give those employees an opportunity to present themselves to the provincial Treasury’s internal audit unit.

The department spent 2011 collating the huge volumes of information. The process was concluded towards the end of 2011 – resulting in the dismissal of the six ghost employees.

Many staff members came forward saying they had been on leave or unable to present themselves for a variety of reasons.

The decision was then taken to give the outstanding 597 who still had not presented themselves a chance to do so by January 31. If they do not, their salaries will be frozen.

“These employees have been informed and they must bring their identity document or passport, their original certificates or qualifications or certified copies thereof. Should they fail to present themselves to the provincial Treasury we will be left with no choice but to freeze their salaries and immediately initiate investigations into their appointments,” Education MEC Senzo Mchunu said.

When the headcount concludes, the Treasury will again assist the department in verifying the authenticity of the qualifications presented by employees.

Thusi said this exercise would also be a mammoth one, expected to extend over months, if not years, as the department would need, among other things, to contact all the tertiary institutions from which employees claim to have received their qualifications.

The Treasury has not yet been able to calculate the sum of which ghost employees across all departments have defrauded the provincial government.

“We have not done the verification of all employees in the provincial government to determine the number of ghost employees. We are currently busy with a pilot in Education.

“The pilot exercise is very lengthy and costly as it requires that all schools in the province need to be visited by auditors, and therefore will take time.

“It is only after a thorough audit that we will be able to quantify the cost of ghost employees should we find them in any department. At this stage it will be premature to mention any figures,” the Treasury said on Monday. - The Mercury