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Staff Reporter
KwaZulu-Natal transport officials arrested a learner driver and an instructor at a Pietermaritzburg driving licence testing centre on Wednesday, as MEC Siboniso Duma said up to half the province’s motorists may be using fraudulently obtained licences.
Duma said on Thursday that the two were arrested at the Umkondeni Driving and Testing Centre under the province’s #NenzaniLaEzweni operation.
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“Through an intelligence-driven operation, the elite [Transport and Traffic Inspection Unit – TTIU] unit intercepted a conversation between a learner and an instructor from a private driving school about an exchange of R1800,” he said.
“The discussion was about the release of a member of the syndicate who was detained at Alexander Police Station in Pietermaritzburg,” Duma said.
The provincial Department of Transport is cracking down on fraud, bribery and corruption at driver’s licence centres and motor licensing offices.
In January, the department said the TTIU would be working alongside the Road Traffic Management Corporation’s anti-corruption unit and the Hawks to stop fraud and corruption.
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Duma said the department had studied “a corruption playbook used by syndicates in various centres across the province” and had mandated the TTIU to dismantle those networks.
“Critically, any employee of the department of transport who is involved in this racket will be dealt with harshly to set an example for others to see that the corruption game is over,” he said.
He said that the province’s next priority was “to end the sale of driver’s licences as part of stopping the carnage in KZN”.
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