The National Treasury has reiterated that it is taking a multi-pronged approach to manage the growth in the government's wage bill.
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The National Treasury has reiterated that it is taking a multi-pronged approach to manage the growth in the government's wage bill, including a staggered early-retirement programme, auditing the number of employees on government's payroll, and professionalising the public service.
This comes as salaries and benefits of employees accounts for nearly one-third of the government's consolidated expenditure.
However, the government has said that the recently signed three-year wage agreement for 2025/26 to 2027/28 provides stability for public finances in the medium term.
The Budget.
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Tabling the 2026 National Budget Review on Wednesday in Parliament, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said the government was taking several steps to manage the wage bill.
"Our fiscal strategy involves four key features: support economic growth by accelerating public investment, improve the efficiency of public spending, improve the composition of spending by containing the public-service wage bill while increasing capital investment, and entrench sustainable public finances with a principles-led fiscal anchor," he said.
The Early Retirement Programme for eligible employees below the age 60 was introduced to rejuvenate the public service, manage the public-service wage bill and enable the restructuring of departments to improve service delivery.
According to Treasury, 7 687 applications from eligible employees were approved since the programme commenced in October 2025, of which 4 644 relate to provincial departments and the remainder to national departments.
Godongwana added that R3.7 billion has been allocated to departmental baselines for the Early Retirement Programme in 2025/26 and 2026/27. However, the 7 687 applications approved in the first phase are expected to save R2.6 billion in 2026/27.
According to Treasury, the estimated net saving from this programme is R5.5bn, of which R2.6bn will be realised in 2026/27, R1.4bn in 2027/28 and R1.5bn in 2028/29.
Meanwhile, the Budget review documents show that the government is conducting a ghost worker audit to identify and remove non-existent or ineligible individuals on the public-sector payroll.
The phenomenon of non-existent or ineligible individuals receiving state salaries has been
one of the most striking weaknesses of public financial management.
Treasury said the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) has begun verifying high-risk cases and developed a method that reduces the potential for employees to be flagged incorrectly as ghost workers due to administrative errors.
Preliminary results of the ghost worker audit from national and provincial departments have been verified with the DPSA and the audit has flagged 4 323 high-risk cases requiring further verification in the PERSAL system where payroll system fraud may be involved.
"These workers will be verified using facial matching against the National Population Register and physical verification, including cross checking results with the DPSA and Department of Basic Education ghost worker projects," Treasury said.
According to Treasury, a sophisticated verification process is underway to address this, and employees who cannot be physically verified will have salaries withheld and their employment status suspended.
The next phase of this project will integrate with the improvements to payroll systems and the rollout of a single sign-on for public servants. These changes will enable automated oversight, reduce irregularities and support more effective expenditure management.
Additionally, the National Assembly has passed the Public Service Amendment Bill, which marks a step towards standardising and professionalising the appointment of senior officials in local government.
Treasury said the Public Service Amendment Bill, which is on track to become law, will depoliticise and professionalise the public service by separating political and administrative roles in government.
This includes ensuring that the head of a government department cannot simultaneously hold office in a political party, and restricting political interference in staff recruitment and salary determination in departments.
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