Johannesburg - The Hawks arrested seven licensing centre officials for alleged fraud and corruption on Thursday morning, the City of Johannesburg said.
Four worked at the Martindale bulk licensing centre and three at the Langlaagte licensing centre, spokesperson Tony Taverna-Turisan said.
They appeared in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday. The matter was postponed to March 1 and they were granted R5000 bail each.
Eight other officials were arrested earlier in January. A total of 100 corrupt licensing officials had been identified in a forensic report, 72 of them employed by the city, Taverna-Turisan said. They would be arrested in the coming weeks.
The 72 were served with suspension notices on Monday. Their reasons for why they should not be suspended where deemed unsatisfactory. They would face disciplinary hearings.
Between January 2008 and February 2016, 972 alleged fraudulent transactions worth R14.7m were identified at the city’s licensing centres.
The licensing centres under investigation are Martindale, Wemmer, Kliptown, Langlaagte, Midrand, Randburg, Roodepoort, and Sandton.
