Close to 100 traffic officials have been arrested for their roles in the issuing of fake licensing documents, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said on Monday.
The findings by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) allowed the department to act on corrupt officials at driving licensing centres and other entities within the transport sector.
“Over 80 arrests were made for fraud and/or theft during joint operations by the RTMC, Hawks, SA Revenue Service and the SIU. These are made up of 36 vehicle testing examiners, 10 Natis officers, 26 DLTC [driving licensing testing centres] officials and three police members,” said Mbalula.
He said the department is also working on introducing stricter rules around the issuing of driver’s licences to eliminate any chance of cheating the system.
“On July 2022, six officials were arrested for 10 000 illicit transactions, which cost the state a combined loss of R60-million.”
The minister added that the department has also implemented various measures to fight corruption that include the introduction of online services and online payments, the rollout of smart enrolment units across all DLTCs, and the centralisation of the management of booking slots.
“I must express my appreciation to [SIU head] advocate Andy Mothibi and his team for their sterling work that enables us to exponentially improve service delivery while uprooting corruption and malfeasance from the system,” said Mbalula.
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