The Department of Home Affairs has developed a world-class new online real-time employee verification portal for National Treasury as part of government’s broader digital transformation agenda to strengthen public sector accountability and protect public funds.

The platform will officially go live on 15 June 2026, with the verification process scheduled to run for an initial two-month period across national and provincial departments.

The initiative by Home Affairs is in support of government’s efforts to eliminate ghost employees and payment irregularities, which cost the national fiscus an estimated R3.9 billion in 2025.

Built using the Department of Home Affairs’ cutting-edge trusted digital identity verification capabilities and linked to the population register, the platform enables liveness tests and biometric real-time verification of employee records to ensure that government personnel information is accurate, current, and reliable.

The project is the latest milestone on Home Affairs’ reform journey, anchored in driving digital transformation to build a capable, secure, and modern state that uses technology to improve governance and service delivery.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, said: “If used consistently, this platform has the power to save South African taxpayers billions of Rands by leveraging the power of enhanced biometric systems to identify ghost employees and others involved in defrauding government payrolls. The application of the digital capabilities our reform work is now consistently delivering to this new use case, demonstrates that the digital transformation of Home Affairs is laying the foundation for an entirely rebuilt state, with the benefits being felt widely across government and society.” 

Media Enquiries:

Carli van Wyk – Spokesperson to the Minister, Cell: 079 166 3899

ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS