Probe into licence fraud throws doubt on abilities of SA drivers

29 June 2006

THE Special Investigating Unit, which is probing the issuing of licences nationwide, says it has found 1360 fraudulent licences and 2400 falsely converted licences so far.
The transport department allocated a three-year grant of R18m in April last year for the unit to investigate the fraud. The unit is looking into the issuing of more than a million drivers’ licences and the conversion of more than 170000 into credit card format.
The unit’s head, Willie Hofmeyr, said yesterday that investigations into 55 of the country’s 145 driving licence testing centres had led to the arrest of 34 government officials and 374 members of the public. More than 300 people were also arrested for the false conversion of licences. More than 60 government employees are awaiting disciplinary action.
The early results of the probe raise serious doubts about the abilities of a sizeable percentage of the country’s 7-million licence holders. “The unit was approached after reports by the transport department, police and the National Intelligence Agency confirmed that the unlawful issuing of drivers’ licences had reached unacceptable levels,” said Hofmeyr.
There were now 75 people conducting investigations at licensing centres all over the country. An evaluation of the data at testing stations has revealed procedural irregularities such as forging the results of vision and driving tests.
“It also identified anomalies such as a Limpopo official who managed to issue 20 or more licences a day, which is impossible considering the time required for each procedure,” Hofmeyr said.
The investigation has revealed syndicated scams involving the buying of fraudulent foreign licences from countries such as Mozambique and converting them to local licences. Many of the conversions checked were found to belong to South Africans who had never left the country.
Of 654 Mozambican conversions investigated, 540 belonged to South African citizens.

Source: Business Day

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