Public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi has suspended an official who has admitted to sending out a hoax e-mail claiming to offer training and job placement through the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA).
The official now faces disciplinary action.
"It must be stressed that no such opportunity for training and job placement for 9 000 metro police officers per annum, with the Local Government SETA, exists and that members of the public should not be misled in this regard," Fraser-Moleketi says in a statement.
She also expressed her annoyance at the employee: "Public servants must appreciate that they have a special responsibility placed upon them to serve the interests of the people of our country."
Public servants, she says, must realise that any breach of this trust "will not be tolerated or condoned and that disciplinary and legal action will be taken against any who disregard the laws and regulations that govern their conduct".
"Any person who is selling information claiming to provide opportunities for placement in this non-existent programme is committing a crime," she adds.
"We appeal to any member of the public who is approached in this regard to report the matter to the police, or, in the case of public servants, to the national public service anti-corruption hotline at 0800-701-701."
Related stories:
Cops urge public to fight hoax e-mail
NIA mum on 'tornado' probe
A storm in an SMS
Online April Fool's joke falls flat
Share