Cape Town – A meeting between taxi owner-drivers, to discuss alleged harassment at the hands of a Bellville traffic official, led to the official’s arrest and appearance in court on charges of corruption.
Traffic officer Gavin Edgar Heinrich Zass, 46, of Elsies River in Cape Town, appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Tuesday, before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg.
He was warned to appear in court again on March 28.
According to the charge sheet, his method of operation was to intercept taxis at random, impound them, and confiscate the taxi’s license disk, as well as the driver’s license and permit.
Prosecutor Simon Leope alleges that he would demand money for his own personal use, from the driver for the release of the impounded taxi and the return of the confiscated documents.
It is alleged that the driver of an intercepted taxi had to get into Zass’s vehicle, and that Zass would take the driver to the Bellville Traffic Centre.
The impounded taxi would also be taken to the centre, driven by an “unknown third party”, on Zass’s instructions.
It is alleged that, on one occasion, Zass demanded R7 000 from a driver, who was only able to pay R2 500, which Zass accepted.
The driver was instructed by Zass to hide the money at a secret place at the traffic department testing station, for Zass to collect.
After this had happened several times, to different owner-drivers, they met to discuss the pooling of money with which to pay Zass as and when he intercepted them.
Instead, they decided to report him, which led to an undercover police operation to trap Zass, with one of the alleged victims acting as a police agent, and paying Zass with money already pooled by the drivers and photocopied by the police.
Zass was duly arrested with the trap money in his trouser pocket, and two cellphones found in his office were confiscated for forensic purposes.
He now faces two counts of corruption, but has not yet pleaded to the charges.