TRAFFIC officers at the Giyani testing centre in Northern Province are being investigated for demanding sex in exchange for learners? and drivers? licenses.
The allegations were brought to light when a woman refused to have sex with a traffic officer and laid a complaint against him. Department representative Obed Langa said the head of the station responded to the complaint with only a three-sentence report.
“This report is unacceptable. We hope that our team will be able to get to the bottom of the matter and produce a concrete report within the seven days,” he said.
Northern Province Transport MEC Dr Tshenuwani Farisani sent a four-man team of investigators to the centre last week and gave them seven days to complete their probe. He said any one found guilty would face disciplinary charges.
This is the same testing centre that was bust last year for being in cahoots with unscrupulous driving school owners who lure desperate drivers’ license applicants from all over South Africa and charge them up to R2_000 each for ?guaranteed licenses?.
But instead of the promised intensive bootcamp training in trucks by specialist instructors, applicants are simply dumped in the bush with little food, appalling accommodation and dangerously unroadworthy vehicles for a week.
The vehicles used by driving schools are so unroadworthy that Farisani branded them “scrap heaps” during the surprise raid in June last year. Trucks used to test license applicants didn?t have handbrakes, spare wheels, indicators or working lights. Some didn?t even have working ignitions, and had to be hot-wired to start.
Traffic officers confronted at Giyani at first tried to insist the vehicles were roadworthy, but finally simply remained silent when Farisani stood by and pointed out defects such as broken handbrakes, broken lights, faulty hooters and missing spare wheels.
No disciplinary action was taken after the raid, however, because there isn’t any legislation to do so, said Farisani. – African Eye News Service