Eastern Cape Teacher Earned Salary for 18 Years Without Teaching a Single Day
- An Eastern Cape teacher named Nontsikelelo Ngumbela has remained on the provincial education department's payroll for 18 years without working a single day
- The case surfaced during ongoing court proceedings, where it also emerged that Ngumbela is 64 years old, four years past the compulsory retirement age for public school teachers
- The department has launched an internal investigation but says tracing who authorised the arrangement is difficult because most officials involved have since retired
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EASTERN CAPE - An Eastern Cape teacher named Nontsikelelo Ngumbela has been collecting a government salary for 18 consecutive years without ever entering a classroom, a stunning disclosure that has emerged from ongoing regional court proceedings.
According to the Daily Dispatch, the details came to light during cross-examination in a court case involving a separate legal dispute. While Ngumbela was involved in proceedings related to a "cease and desist" order, an individual named Cole confronted her with her employment records, pulling back the curtain on what had apparently gone unnoticed for nearly two decades.
A displaced teacher or a ghost worker?
When the matter was raised in court, Ngumbela pushed back against being labelled a ghost employee. She described herself instead as a "displaced teacher," insisting that the state still formally recognises her. The opposing side argued otherwise, contending that she had deliberately concealed her employment status because drawing a full salary from a prestigious position without performing any work was, in their words, "appalling."
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Adding another layer to the case, court records confirmed that Ngumbela is currently 64 years old. In South Africa, public school teachers are required to retire at 60, meaning she has continued receiving state pay for at least four years beyond the legal retirement threshold.
Department scrambles to trace old records
The Eastern Cape Department of Education confirmed that Ngumbela remains on its active payroll. Spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said an internal investigation is underway, with officials working to locate documents from 18 years ago to establish who originally authorised the arrangement.
The inquiry has hit significant obstacles. Nearly all of the leadership figures who were in charge when the payroll setup was first created have since retired. Investigators are now attempting to track down and interview those former officials while also untangling a complicated trail left behind by multiple administrative entity transfers that handled staff deployments across the province during that period.
3 Briefly News articles on ghost employees
- The South African government handed out R3.9 billion in 2025 to people who either do not exist or should not be on the payroll, and is now racing to plug the hole before more public money disappears.
- An internal audit by the Department of Public Works found at least 60 workers on its payroll who could not be accounted for.
- The Special Investigating Unit has found that the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is paying the salaries of over 1 200 ghost employees.
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Source: Briefly News
