North West MEC for Public Safety, Howard Yawa on Thursday undertook to retain the Provincial examiners deployed at the Potchefstroom Driving Licensing and Testing Centre pending the conclusion of investigations into allegations of massive fraud and corruption involving learners licenses at the centre.
In a decisive step to stamp out the scourge uncovered by his Provincial Inspectorate during a routine inspection, MEC Yawa had earlier cancelled over 1 950 learners licenses issued at the centre. As a precaution, all implicated examiners were also delinked from the electronic National Transport InformationSystem (eNatis) pending the outcome of the investigation.
The inspectorate had uncovered 1 892 learners license application forms without learners license answer sheets inside, raising suspicion that applicants issued with learners licenses were not subjected to a theory test.
Eighteen learners license application forms were not authorised by examiners as required by the Road Traffic Act, although learners licenses have been issued to the applicants.
Eye tests had not been conducted on 50 applicants who applied for Learners licenses as required by the Act, although valid learners licenses have been issued to such applicants.
A further 10 learners license applicants, whose application forms indicated that they had failed their learners license theory tests had passed issued with valid learner’s licenses.
Given the severity of the allegations, MEC Yawa’s inspectorate had referred the case to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) for an investigation. Upon finalisation of the investigation, affected examiners including the management representative will be subjected to disciplinary hearing and criminal proceedings.
Some applicants might be subjected to a retest depending on the outcome of the investigation.
“We are confident that the indepth investigation that the SIU is busy with will assist us to keep out the vampires who have no regard for the integrity of our licensing system and the many lives of the road users they were putting at risk from the recently opened R24,5 million Best Practice Model Centre (BPMC).
While the new centre is about quicker and smarter service, it’s much more about integrity, purification, efficiency and effectiveness, and we’ll do everything in our power to support Tlokwe City Council whose management had requested province to probeallegations of irregularities to keep it that way, ” emphasised Yawa.
Since the opening of the new Tlokwe BPMC Centre last month, the handling of appointments has improved tremendously to the extend that the tests are conducted within two days of making an appointment. Overnight sleepovers by clients at the municipal premises in order to be first on the queue have eliminated.
Enquiries:
Lesiba Moses Kgwele (Departmental Spokesperson)
Tel: 018 381 9171
Cell: 083 629 1987
Fax: 018 381 9123
E-mail: LKgwele@nwpg.gov.za
