The Mpumalanga department of community safety has dismissed allegations that the taking over of revenue collection from various municipalities has nothing to do with the alleged continued corruption in these centers.
This following the department’s announcement that all licencing fees must be directly paid into the department’s bank account and not of municipalities.
According to the department, these fees include licensing of vehicles, issuing of vehicle ownership certificates, learners, and driving licenses among others.
The department’s spokesperson Moeti MMusi says the plan is to take over the revenue collection in all the municipalities, adding that the decision was made by the executive council.
Mmusi further urged the public to report any suspecting act of bribery or corruption should they find themselves in when utilizing these centers.
The public must note that various DLTCs have different Reference Numbers that must be included when such payments are made. The licensing centres are at Mbombela (Nelspruit DTLC, The Groove Shopping Centre), Hazyview, Barberton and White River.
“The fees should now be paid into the Standard Bank Account and the reference numbers vary according to the centres where these services are rendered. All the new banking details will now be available at the specified centres as of 1 July 2020”.
A victim who asked to remain anonymous says she was told to pay an R 1800 bribe when she went to do her licence testing, adding that she was told that she will fail if she does not bribe the official that will be testing her.
“I desperately needed the licence as the job I had applied for needed it, to my surprise I had to bribe to get it with the money I did not have. It sad that my family had to go to a loan shark to borrow the money as my testing date was due on that day,” said the victim.
In 2019 at least 95 officials from licensing departments around the country were arrested on suspicion of fraud and corruption.
According to the national traffic anti-corruption unit of the Road Traffic Management Unit (RTMC) together with the Hawks, the officials are from Limpopo, Gauteng, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal.
The spokesperson for RTMC Simon Zwane said greed was the biggest cause of corruption, and that it persisted in the licensing department.