By Sipokazi Maposa
A city traffic officer has been suspended and is to face a disciplinary hearing for alleged involvement in a learner's licence scam in Khayelitsha.
Metro Police spokesperson Kevin Maxwell said two more officers could face hearings if an ongoing investigation implicated them in corruption.
This follows last week's police raid on the Khayelitsha traffic department where dozens of boxes of fake learner's licences were seized.
About 4 500 learner's documents, many of which are believed to be fake, were seized by police last Wednesday in a countrywide attempt by the Department of Transport and Public Works to expose corruption in traffic departments.
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Maxwell said at least three city traffic officers were allegedly involved in the scam.
"We are awaiting documentation from one of the provincial inspectors to confirm if the two officers are implicated. So far, we haven't received anything official about the two members. We've only been informed by telephone.
"Until this is confirmed in writing, we can't take any action against them. One member has already been suspended after he was implicated in fraud and corruption.
"We are setting up an internal disciplinary hearing to deal with the charges," said Maxwell.
The raid was part of a joint operation by the City of Cape Town's auditing department, the compliance monitoring department of the provincial Department of Transport, the Driving Licence Inspectorate of the national department, and a special investigating unit appointed by Transport Minister Jeff Radebe last year.
Maxwell said the city was serious about rooting out corruption in traffic departments.
"We are totally against corruption and are committed to rooting it out," he said.
Provincial traffic management director Peter Beets said the names of officials found guilty would be forwarded to Transport and Public Works MEC Marius Fransman, who would decide whether to deregister or suspend them.
Fransman said two weeks ago that the net was closing on several testing stations found to be committing fraud. He had asked the Special Investigating Unit to track down a "possible syndicate", and met with the Community Safety department and the Asset Forfeiture Unit.
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This article was originally published on page 8 of Cape Argus on February 01, 2007
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