Five former Department of Community Safety help desk officials accused of taking bribes to unlawfully erase massive outstanding licence fees owed by trucking companies have been arrested.
The scam allegedly involved R60 million.
The accused, 43-year-old Thembi Millicent Motlohi, 35-year-old Allman Thabani Masuku, 52-year-old Xoliswa Celia Ngcekwane, 44-year-old Nompulelo Winnie Nxumalo, 54-year-old Agnes Nosipho Ndzinisa, and 37-year-old Mbombela Registry Authority official Nkosinathi Samuel Gumede, were arrested on Monday.
The accused were taken down by a team of law enforcers that included Nelspruit-based Hawks, officials from the Road Traffic Management Corporation, and others from the National Traffic Anti-Corruption Unit as well as the Special Investigation Unit.
In December 2018 the Hawks caught wind of the alleged multi-million rand scam. They began investigating the anomaly in which penalties for late licence disc renewals running into millions of rand were being inexplicably cancelled.
Allegations were that the accused Department of Community Safety staffers were extending expired vehicle licence discs for bribes that were a fraction of the massive penalties incurred by motorists and truckers for late renewals.
“It was established that the former employees of the Department of Community Safety colluded with motorists and truck owners,” said Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi.
“The officials would manipulate the system and extend the expiration dates of the vehicle licence discs and re-issue a new disc that showed a zero balance.”
In turn, truck owners allegedly paid bribes that were a fraction of the penalties to the staffers.
The unlawful system aptly named “money dumping” prejudiced the department of R60 million it was supposed to earn from penalties.
All the accused appeared before the Nelspruit Commercial Crime Court on Monday, 18 July 2022.
They were, however, released on R15 000 bail each.
The matter was postponed to 29 September 2022 for further investigation.
