Johannesburg - Gauteng MEC for Transport Ismail Vadi said his department was in the process of suspending 19 employees working at motor vehicle registering authorities for fraud amounting to R6.2 million.
Vadi said the employees affected were from the Kliptown, Mabopane and Temba offices and that his department had concluded a two-year investigation into financial irregularities which have plagued the licensing centres.
He said the investigation was initiated after the department discovered that ghost users were created through the eNatis system by two officials. Both have since been fired.
Vadi said their modus operandi consisted of removing an outstanding fee from a client’s profile and dumping it on another person’s profile.
“The person whose profile is dumped on would in some instances be dead. The official would then receive a bribe from the client whose fines have been transferred or dumped somewhere else,” Vadi said.
He added the department would be reinstating the dumped fines onto the original person’s profile.
Vadi made the announcement on Thursday after mayor Herman Mashaba revealed that more officials had been arrested for fraud and corruption.
Vadi explained that the city was aware of the department’s investigation and lauded the municipality for its efforts in curbing fraudulent activities. He also defended the provincial department and said it was not using the City of Joburg’s work as the basis for its arrests, but was acting on years of investigations.
“The mayor has taken the initiative, and we don’t have a problem with that, but his initiative is merely a consequence of our own investigations.
“We alerted the City of Joburg as early as October 6, 2015 and the director for licensing was informed that we were picking up a number of possible irregularities and were (going to) get this investigation going,” he said.
He said Mashaba had acted within his prerogative by saying how many officials had been arrested.