Over 50% of new licences invalid

2003-04-07 13:59

Cape Town - More than half of all drivers licences issued since 1998 are thought to have been issued in an "irregular manner", acting transport minister Jeff Radebe said on Monday.

In a written reply to a question by James Selfe (DA) in the National Assembly, Radebe said the department was currently involved in investigating alleged irregularities regarding the acquisition and issuing of drivers licences in all nine provinces.

"It is very difficult to make an accurate estimate of the number of fake or invalid driving licences.

"Based on an informal study, with samples and investigations with the South African Police Service from 1998, it has been estimated that more than 50 percent of all licenses issued were issued in an irregular manner," he said.

In terms of the National Road Traffic Act, such a licence is void and invalid.

"In cases where cards are issued in an irregular manner, licences are sold to applicants, eye tests are not done, applicants are not tested as prescribed, or not tested at all, and licences are being authorised by non-authorised examiners, etc."

The Scorpions special investigating unit began a forensic audit in Limpopo province more than three years ago. More than 84 000 drivers licence files from nine testing centres were scrutinised, and it was found that 10 000 licences had been issued irregularly.

This audit did not include criminal investigations where people "bought" their licences, but was only done on "face value" contraventions of the Act.

In addition, it was believed that in Limpopo up to 2 000 fraudulent former Gazankulu, Venda, and Lebowa licences were converted to the new credit card format licenses, Radebe said.

In Gauteng, among others, an estimated more than 5 000 fraudulent foreign licences, including Mozambican, Congolese, Chinese, and Pakistani licences, were converted to the new format. About another 1 000 fraudulent foreign licences were converted in KwaZulu-Natal, while an estimated 2 000 fraudulent Bophuthatswana licences were converted in Mpumalanga, and in the North West Province between 3 000 and 4 000 licences were identified as void.

In the Free State, it was estimated that up to 3 000 licences issued were invalid, he said.

In the Western Cape, it was estimated that more than 3 000 fraudulent Cameroon, Namibia, Congolese, Transkei, Ciskei, Ethiopian, and Somali licences were converted, and another 750 were under investigation.

In the Eastern Cape, an estimated more than 3 000 fraudulent Transkei and Ciskei licences were converted, and up to 10 000 of the fraudulent Transkei and Ciskei licences "are floating around".

The process of cancelling all these licences was underway.

In a few instances, the new licences had been forged, but the stringent security measures of the card itself made this very difficult, and forgeries were easily identified with the naked eye, Radebe said.

- SAPA