3 000 lose driving licences

2007-12-12 22:57

Johannesburg - About 3 000 driving licences had been cancelled during an operation to root out fraud and corruption, said the Department of Transport on Wednesday.

In addition, more than 1 000 people and 70 officials have been arrested during the drive by the national Department of Transport and the special investigating unit (SIU).

Spokesperson Collen Msibi said that 2 792 driver's licences were cancelled during the joint operation.

He said the arrests were linked to the issuing of invalid driving licences. This led to the department committing R20m a year until 2011, towards rooting out corruption.

Msibi said: "The SIU has so far audited close to a million licence files and has identified more than 56 000 invalid driving licences and 2 792 licences that already have been cancelled."

Some have been jailed

Court proceedings were continuing and so far 600 people and six officials had been convicted and fined up to R9 000. Some were sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

"The department's internal deterrent programme also had yielded impressive results, with 57 officials being disciplined and 42 dismissed.

"The key objective was to identify and cancel invalid licences and also to clamp down on corrupt individuals and officials who were taking part in fraudulent activities within driving licence testing centres."

The SIU had conducted an extensive review of these centres and found 40 to be non-compliant with minimum requirements. These centres were now being upgraded.

Msibi said: "Some of the improvements include the implementation of document-control systems, training filing clerks to comply with the requirements of the National Road Traffic Act and also repairing defective testing equipment."

- SAPA