Rustenburg - A traffic officer and a driving school instructor were arrested for alleged corrupt driver’s licence activities in Qonce, formerly King William’s Town, Eastern Cape police said.
Spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said a multi-disciplinary task team conducted a take-down operation on Thursday at about 4pm.
“The operation followed after the anti-corruption office received complaints of corrupt activities taking place at the King William’s Town traffic department whereby learner’s and driver's licence examiners were alleged to be working with a middleman who is a driving school instructor.
“The middleman would identify clients and offer them assistance in terms of obtaining learner’s licences without having to complete the test. It is further alleged that this process would be completed by the examiner who is the traffic officer and the client is then declared competent and subsequently issued with a learner’s licence,” Brigadier Kinana said.
He said an application for an undercover operation to be conducted was made in August 2021.
“It was then observed that a client agent had managed to obtain the leaner’s licence by paying a gratification of R1500 to the driving school instructor. After entering the exam room the client agent was instructed by the examiner not to write anything on the paper, but to hand in an empty script with only personal details and the test was then completed by the traffic officer. The client was then declared competent and later received the learner’s licence.”
He said the driving school instructor and the examiner were arrested on charges relating to corruption. They appeared in the King William’s Town court on Friday.
“They are traffic officer Lthando Alex Jaza, 51, and driving school instructor Luvuyo Stamper, 30,” he said.
He said in a separate incident, a licensing clerk and another officer were alleged to have taken advantage of desperate members of the public who were struggling to obtain roadworthy test certificates.
“It is alleged that the licensing clerk would issue the roadworthy certificates even though the vehicle concerned was not there physically.
“According to the report, she would charge each vehicle according to its capacity and would do this with the assistance from the examiner of her choice to issue roadworthy certificates.”
He said during the undercover investigation, it was discovered on the eNatis system that some of the vehicles, for which the roadworthy certificates were sought, were roadworthy but were reported as having been scrapped.
“Consequently, both suspects were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Task Team and Crime Intelligence Unit, after a discovery was made that they were involved in fraudulent and corrupt activities.
“The investigation started in February 2021. The two suspects appeared in the King William’s Town court on Friday, March 25, 2022. They are Mpumelelo Morris Baneti, 50, and Nomasomi Abegail Bosman, 58. The court granted bail R500 bail each to the suspects and they are expected to return to court on May 10 and 25, 2022, respectively,” he said.
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