MEDIA STATEMENT

KZN TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT CRACKS DOWN ON CORRUPTION

Jabu Sibongile Buthelezi (35) and Lance Cheddy (36) are expected to appear in the Durban Magistrates Court later today on charges of corruption, fraud and bribery. Annette Hicken (35) and Andries De Lange (44) appeared in the Durban Magistrates Court yesterday (2003/12/03) in connection with the same case and were released on bail of R2000 each with strict bail conditions.

These court appearances form part of an ongoing probe and a raid by members of the SAPS and KZN Transport Department officials on Tuesday (2003/12/02) on the Rossburgh Testing Grounds, south of Durban following allegations of corruption, fraud and bribery relating to the issue of learner's licences. Hicken was arrested on the premises and the other three suspects later handed themselves over to police.

De Lange is a senior traffic officer who was employed at the Rossburgh Test Centre and is currently stationed at RTI Umdloti. He was on leave at the time of his arrest. Hicken and Buthelezi are employed as clerks at Rossburgh. Cheddy is an employee of Jackson's Driving School based in Durban. Processes are already underway to suspend the Transport Department officials from work pending the outcome of the case.

The early morning swoop on the testing ground offices on Tuesday followed an intensive and thorough forensic audit into several learner drivers' licences issued by this centre. This involved several licences coming under the scrutiny of specialised forensic experts who evaluated each of the licences, and other documents, needed to obtain the licences.

The result was that several documents were found to have been tampered with - some at the preliminary level when examinations were written. A large number of applicants who were suspected to have fraudulently obtained their learners licences were interviewed and many of them confirmed that they had paid to obtain the learners licences.

MEC for Transport S'bu Ndebele said: "Any kind of corruption will not be tolerated. While those guilty parties have enriched themselves, little thought had been given to their behaviour which will indeed contribute to the spiralling road carnage.

"Just one fraudulent learner's licence can cause havoc for public safety. We will not stop our probe to see how far rooted this corruption is. We will not rest until we clean up any allegation of corruption.

"For the sake of road safety and the country's Arrive Alive campaign, our zealousness to continue in our probe will persist," Mr Ndebele said.

The investigation found that applicants were either given crib notes; pre-marked answer sheets; and some were not even present in the classes when they supposedly wrote their examinations. In some cases the examiner had given the answers orally in the class room.

The department has registered dockets with the South African Police Services at the Bellair Police Station in Durban. Investigations into this matter are continuing and more arrests are expected soon.

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