National Treasury Saves R6.7 Billion Through TARS Initiative To Curb Wasteful Spending

The National Treasury has successfully saved R6.7 billion through its Targeted and Responsible Savings (TARS) initiative, introduced earlier this year by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.

The TARS programme was designed to help the government identify areas of duplication, inefficiency, and waste across departments. Through this initiative, several government programmes have been flagged for immediate termination, short-term phase-out, or further evaluation.

As part of these cost-saving measures, the government has also begun removing ghost workers from the national payroll. Over 8,000 cases have reportedly been identified where individuals were receiving multiple salaries from more than one department.

National Treasury Targets Waste, Protects Key Services

According to the finance department, the R6.7 billion in savings will be reallocated to key sectors, with a focus on safeguarding essential public services while creating space for increased investment in national priorities such as infrastructure development.

Minister Godongwana emphasised that the initiative also addresses social grant fraud, ensuring public funds reach legitimate beneficiaries.

“The TARS initiative systematically identifies duplication, eliminates waste and reorganises programmes to deliver value for money.

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“We are implementing medium-term savings of R6.7 billion by closing or scaling down low-priority and underperforming programmes immediately. More than half of this involves identifying people who are double-dipping and defrauding the social grants system,” said Godongwana.

In addition, Treasury will scale down the Public Transport Network Grant after some cities failed to launch their integrated public transport systems as intended.

The department said these steps are part of a broader strategy to improve fiscal discipline while maintaining South Africa’s commitment to sustainable economic growth and effective public service delivery.

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