Johannesburg - The 57-year-old owner of a private vehicle testing station was due to appear in a Roodepoort court on Monday morning on charges of fraud and corruption. This follows his arrest for issuing a roadworthy certificate in September for an unroadworthy vehicle which had been impounded by Free State traffic authorities.
Members of the Road Traffic Management Corporation’s corruption-fighting unit, the National Traffic Anti-Corruption Unit, initiated an investigation after receiving information from Free State traffic officials that an impounded vehicle had obtained a roadworthiness certificate while standing at their pound.
Numerous faults were found by the officers after the driver was stopped. Five days after the impoundment, the owners tried to have the vehicle released after obtaining a roadworthiness certificate from the private testing station in Gauteng.
Members of Ntacu, together with the SAPS Gauteng’s special task team and the Gauteng traffic police compliance unit, raided the private station on Friday and arrested the man who had signed the roadworthy certificate.
RTMC spokesperson Simon Zwane said. “Unroadworthy vehicles are a major challenge on South African roads and contribute immensely to crashes and fatalities.”
Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane said: “I commend officers from the Gauteng traffic police for the sterling work in rooting out criminal elements within driver and learner testing centres."