eThekwini Pursues Criminal Charges Over Alleged Durban Metro Police Jobs Scam

The eThekwini Municipality says it is pursuing criminal charges against an official accused of taking payments from applicants seeking positions in the Durban Metro Police Service.

The allegations emerged during the municipality's 2026 recruitment process, which opened in February and attracted more than 62,000 applications. Successful candidates were due to begin work in May after completing three months of training.

A forensic investigation was commissioned after 71 unsuccessful applicants alleged that they had paid tens of thousands of rands in exchange for jobs.

The accounting firm Isiqu handed its report to the municipality at the end of June. Although the full report has not been publicly released, city officials said its findings linked an official to payments made by applicants.

Durban Metro Police Commissioner Sibonelo Mchunu said a criminal case had been opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS).

“We got complaints and affidavits from 71 complainants, which said we paid money in order to get jobs. We paid so and so, so and so. That statement together with the bank records revealed that this money was paid to one of the people we are prosecuting. This junior person, apparently, he was not even part of the recruitment process. He was just a worker working at Albert Park, he was just monitoring the process and scamming people.”

City officials said the investigation found payments including R3,000, R60,000 and R280,000 in an account linked to the implicated official. Officials said R420,000 had been paid to the official to secure jobs.

The officials rejected reports that applicants had collectively been charged as much as R20 million, saying the forensic findings did not support that figure.

City Rejects Claims Of Widespread Scheme

The investigation followed allegations from unsuccessful applicants that money had been demanded in return for positions in the Metro Police.

Mchunu acknowledged that allegations of irregularities have surfaced during recruitment campaigns before. He said, however, that previous cases involving the sale of jobs had resulted in dismissals, including disciplinary action against human resources officials.

“But for selling jobs there have been dismissals that have been affected in the department. HR officers were found and dismissed. There’s never been issues of an internal person having received bribees, a police man. But we have received evidence which talks to officers who are not even in the recruitment process liaising with external people to do something like that. But the proof is always difficult.”

City officials also rejected claims arising from a leaked version of the forensic report that senior officials had been implicated or that there had been an attempt to protect them.

The leaked document, which circulated publicly last month, prompted criticism and allegations online about the handling of the investigation. The municipality said the findings did not establish that the alleged jobs-for-sale scheme was widespread or implicate senior officials.

City Manager Musa Mbhele said the municipality was activating law-enforcement agencies whenever potential fraud was identified.

“As soon as something looks like fraud, smells like fraud we feel like it is possibly fraud. That is why we activate all the law enforcement agencies. So, we really want to sound a warning to our people. We have issued on a number of occasions to say jobs, municipal jobs are not for sale and people should not be selling those jobs. We warn members of the public that there’s a prevalence of scammers who dupe innocent members of the public into paying money on the promise that they will be getting them employment in the city.”

Opposition Parties Demand Full Report

ActionSA and the Democratic Alliance have called on eThekwini to publish the complete forensic report and set out the steps being taken in response to its findings.

DA mayoral candidate Haniff Hoosen said the allegations demonstrated the seriousness of corruption concerns within the municipality and criticised the decision not to release the report publicly.

“Durban is in a mess and our city leadership is leading the city into a mess. The high levels of corruption in the city needs to come to an end. The fact that jobs are being sold in the Durban Metro Police, and that has been covered up today because the city leadership refuses to make the report public. We will be demanding for that report to be made public. The people have a right to know in the city.”

The municipality has not said when the full forensic report will be released.

Officials have, however, said prosecutions will be pursued against individuals implicated in wrongdoing.