Gauteng transport official arrested for issuing fraudulent driver licenses
Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Ismail Vadi, this morning announced that a Senior Administrative Officer employed in the Department of Roads and Transport was arrested at his workplace in central Johannesburg in a joint operation by the South African Police Services and the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
The employee, who works in the Department’s Monitoring and Research Unit for driver license testing centres, also was issued by the Head of Department, Ronald Swartz, with an immediate suspension notice and an internal disciplinary charge sheet.
The employee is alleged to have contravened several provisions the National Road Traffic Act between July and December 2017. He is being charged criminally for irregularly converting the codes of driving licenses and for issuing fraudulent driving licenses.
In addition, he is facing five counts of “serious misconduct” departmentally relating to the fraudulent issuing of driving licenses; cancelling of driving licenses; upgrading and/or converting of driving licences; attempting to improperly gain access to the National Traffic Information System (NaTIS), and performing certain administrative functions that he was not authorised to carry out.
An internal departmental investigation has found that he is alleged to have irregularly processed 106 driving licenses applications. The unauthorised licenses were issued from 16 DLTCs in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and North-West provinces.
MEC Vadi said that the latest arrest was an essential part of the Gauteng provincial government’s strategy to fight fraud and corruption in the public service. He indicated that the investigation was on-going and further arrests are likely to take place in the near future.
Vadi thanked an unidentified member of the public for reporting a single driver license irregularity that led to a full-scale investigation into the matter.
He indicated that driving licenses acquired through irregular means will be cancelled.
Enquiries:
Melitah Madiba
Cell: 073 644 9935
