More than a thousand people and 70 officials were arrested during a drive to root out driver-licence fraud and corruption, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday.
”About 2 790 drivers’ licences were also cancelled during the ongoing joint operation by the national Department of Transport and the special investigating unit [SIU],” said spokesperson Collen Msibi.
He said the arrests were linked to the issuing of invalid drivers’ licences. This led to the department committing R20-million per year, until 2011, towards rooting out corruption and to prevent a repetition.
”The SIU has so far audited close to a million licence files and has identified more than 56 000 invalid drivers’ licences and 2 792 licences have already been cancelled,” Msibi said.
Court proceedings were ongoing and to date 600 individuals and six officials had been convicted and fined up to R9 000; some were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
”The department’s internal deterrent programme has also yielded impressive results, with 57 officials disciplined and 42 dismissed.
”The key objective was to identify and cancel invalid licences and also to clamp down on corrupt individuals and officials who are participating in fraudulent activities within driver’s licence testing centres (DLTCs).”
The SIU conducted an extensive review of DLTCs and found 40 to be non-compliant with minimum requirements. These centres were now being upgraded.
”Some of the improvements include the implementation of document control systems, training filing clerks to comply with the requirements of the National Road Traffic Act and also repairing defective testing equipment,” Msibi said. — Sapa