LICENCE PROBE: DETAILS EMERGE

POLICE investigating license fraud at three Mpumalanga vehicle testing stations were forced to abandon their probes in 1998 after systematic intimidation of witnesses destroyed their court case. Nelspruit fraud investigator Sergeant Jan Ngwenya confirmed on Wednesday that police managed to arrest five senior traffic officials in 1998 during a sting operation at the Elukwatini test centre near Badplaas. Police and prosecutors took damning statements from 30 witnesses but were forced to withdraw all charges after the first five most important witnesses refuted their sworn statements in court and insisted they knew nothing. Growing public outrage at government’s apparent inability to crack the syndicates masterminding the fraud forced Mpumalanga to suspend all nine license examiners at KwaMhlanga on Tuesday.