How much an illegal learner’s licence costs in South Africa

The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has apprehended four suspects in King William’s Town, Eastern Cape, for facilitating the illegal purchase of learner driver’s licences.

The suspects allegedly charged students R2,500 a pop to have the test written on their behalf so that the learner’s licence itself is still registered as a legal document under the applicant’s name, with R1,500 going to the examiner and R1,000 to the “runner” that is writing the test.

In some cases, the applicants who paid for the service would sit idle in the testing room while their paper is being completed by the runner, while in others, they wouldn’t even bother to show face and only go to the driver’s licence testing centre (DLTC) to pick up their new learner’s licence after it has already been awarded.

How it works

In this recent case, the four suspects were caught red-handed in a classroom whilst the runners were in the process of writing tests.

The individuals included an examiner, who also happened to be a manager at the DLTC, an applicant who was sitting idle in the classroom, and two runners.

“One suspect was allegedly writing on behalf of four applicants including a foreign national, and another was writing on behalf of one absent applicant,” said the RTMC.

The scam was discovered after members of the National Traffic Anti-Corruption Unit obtained information that examiners at the licensing centre were colluding with driving school instructors to allow runners to write learner’s licences on behalf of applicants in exchange for gratification.

“The anti-corruption unit proceeded to conduct an in loco inspection at the centre and discovered that the examiner had allegedly unlawfully allowed runners into the classroom to write test,” said the RTMC.

The fraudsters appeared before the King William’s Town magistrate court yesterday for their sentencing, with the investigation continuing to find the four applicants who stood to benefit from this illegal activity.