A total of 190,503 licences have been cancelled after a fraud and maladministration investigation within the Driving Licence Testing Centres (DLTCs) found these licences were linked to deceased individuals.
This investigation was conducted by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) after it identified critical vulnerabilities in the Electronic National Administration Traffic Information System (eNaTIS).
These include foreign licenses being converted using unverified documents, as well as DLTC officials also manipulating eNaTIS to unjustly transfer outstanding fees and penalties to deceased individuals or unsuspecting citizens.
This enabled some vehicle owners, especially those with heavy motor vehicles, to evade state debts.
Systemic flaws in cash management were another cause for concern.
These included absent daily reconciliations, misreported cash records, and unverified revenue statements, culminating in significant financial losses.
The presence of corrupt intermediaries, often referred to as “runners” and “agents”, taking advantage of delays in processing to facilitate fraudulent activities for a fee was also discovered.
Finally, the SIU found that the internal safeguards of the eNaTIS system were insufficient, allowing for the creation of duplicates, altered weights, and manipulated vehicle statuses.
Following this investigation, the SIU then made 78 criminal referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for legal action to be taken against officials and private individuals complicit in the fraud and maladministration.
73 disciplinary referrals were also submitted to the Department of Transport for action to be taken against officials and recommendations made to strengthen the systems and prevent future fraud.
This includes linking eNatis directly to the Home Affairs and the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office databases for real-time document verification.
The SIU also indicated that amendments to the National Road Traffic Act (NRTA) should be made to clarify the responsibilities of company proxies and representatives.
Broader investigation
Along with its investigations into the licence fraud and maladministration issues, the SIU investigated, recovered, and returned millions of rand to six provincial transport departments.
The money had been irregularly diverted from the Nationwide Rolling Stock Fleet project, and the restitution of the funds is a part of a comprehensive programme designed to enhance the value chain.
“The SIU investigated the diversion of project funds and identified irregular expenditures totalling R16.7 million,” it said.
The sums returned to each provincial department were:
- Gauteng Transport — R4,710,561
- Mpumalanga Transport — R9,549,640
- Eastern Cape Transport — R306,000
- KwaZulu-Natal Transport — R65,500
- Free State Transport — R60,000
- Limpopo Transport — R17,000
The SIU noted that R6.9 million of the R9.5 million recovered for the Mpumalanga Department of Transport was sourced from the Optimum Coal Mine near Emalahleni.
This sum was from outstanding motor licensing fees and penalties in respect of the trucks and smaller vehicles owned by Optimum for the period January 2018 to November 2022.
It should be noted that the mine was sold by Glencore to the Guptas under suspicious circumstances in 2016, resulting in the family extracting R3 billion in cash from the mine, which led to the mine facing significant financial struggles.
It was then transferred to Liberty Coal in 2024 as part of a R461-million settlement with the National Prosecuting Authority.
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