A junior eThekwini municipal employee allegedly collected R420,000 from 71 people who believed they were paying for Durban Metro Police jobs, the municipality confirmed on 2 September 2026. The alleged fraud was uncovered after a forensic investigation by Isiqu, commissioned in June 2026, examined complaints about jobs-for-sale in the Metro Police recruitment process.
eThekwini officials said the implicated employee worked at Albert Park in central Durban and was not part of the recruitment team. The employee allegedly solicited payments from jobseekers outside official municipal channels, exploiting the public’s trust in the Metro Police recruitment process.
‘Metro Police jobs were not for sale,’ said eThekwini Metro Police Commissioner Sibonelo Mchunu, speaking at a media briefing in Durban on 2 September. ‘He was just a worker, working there at Albert Park, scamming people outside.’
Mchunu confirmed that a criminal case had been opened over the alleged scam, as reported by SABC News and independently confirmed by EWN and eNCA on 2 September. The forensic investigation by Isiqu was commissioned after the municipality received complaints from people who said they had paid for positions that never materialised.
The case underscores the desperation among South Africa’s unemployed, which Statistics South Africa said grew by 345,000 to 8.5 million people in the second quarter of 2026. The official unemployment rate stood at 33.6%, with employed persons decreasing by 16,000 compared with the first quarter, according to Stats SA data released on 11 August.
The R420,000 allegedly collected from 71 complainants averages approximately R5,915 per victim, a significant sum for households in a country where millions live below the poverty line. While no comparable municipal job-selling cases have been independently verified in the Western Cape, communities across the Cape Flats continue to face persistently high unemployment and limited formal job opportunities.
The demand for government employment in South Africa consistently outstrips available positions, with thousands of applicants regularly competing for limited vacancies in services such as metro policing. The eThekwini case demonstrates how that gap can create opportunities for those willing to exploit desperate jobseekers.
eThekwini has not indicated whether complainants will be reimbursed or whether the employee has been suspended pending the criminal investigation. Author Ridwaan Adams will next check in on court proceedings once a hearing date is confirmed.