A joint operation between the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) led to the arrest of four individuals suspected of selling learner licences.
According to the SIU, the suspects were allegedly involved in a “cash-for-driver’s licence” corruption scheme at the Marble Hall Driving Licence Testing Centre (DLTC) in Limpopo.
The first suspect was arrested on Friday, 11 September 2026, and found in possession of several learner’s licences, while three more were arrested later in the day with cash in their possession.
“The operation has produced three more arrests. These are cashiers at the Licensing Testing Station,” explained the SIU.
“Two of them are 63-year-old women, and the other is a 53-year-old woman. Cash was found on these cashiers.”
According to the unit, one suspect hid “about R4,500 in her lower undergarment”, while another “hid the R800 in her bosom”.
These suspects have been charged with fraud, corruption and contravention of the Cyber Act for tampering with the electronic national administration traffic information system (eNaTIS).
The SIU said the intelligence-led operation intercepted suspects from KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo who were allegedly en route to collect illicitly issued learner’s licences.
Its investigation under Proclamation R.37 of 2017, as amended by Proclamation 191 of 2024, found that a suspect from KwaZulu-Natal allegedly solicited R2,000 per licence from applicants.
The first suspect allegedly promised to secure learner’s licences without applicants having to undergo the required testing process.
“The suspect allegedly coordinated with an accomplice in Limpopo, who in turn worked with examiners at the Marble Hall testing centre to process fraudulent applications,” said the SIU.
During the investigation, law enforcement officials gathered intelligence indicating the syndicate facilitated bulk transactions involving between 20 and 30 learners’ licences at a time.
The SIU declared that its investigation will continue and disciplinary action will follow against anyone found to have participated in or facilitated the alleged corruption.
South Africans cannot pass the new learner’s licence test
In July 2026, the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) revealed that of the 142,100 applicants who have taken the new computerised learner’s licence test since May 2025, only 17% passed.
The Western Cape introduced the Computerised Learner Licence Testing (CLLT) to crack down on cheating and improve assessment quality.
Before the widespread adoption of the computerised system, the province recorded an overall pass rate of 63% for learner licence tests in the 2026 financial year.
Once the tests conducted via the CLLT were factored in, the average dropped by almost 50%, since the new system fundamentally changes how learner’s licence tests are conducted.
The computerised system requires applicants to answer multiple-choice questions from a large randomised pool, requiring a more comprehensive understanding of the rules of the road.
Under the old manual tests, applicants could memorise a smaller pool of questions and practice for the specific tests they might receive.
The old system allowed for more widespread fraud, including cases where officials colluded with or sold tests to learners.
According to the Western Cape Mobility Department, the lower pass rate could be attributed partly to the transition from a manual to a computerised platform.
Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith defended the system, saying there was a noticeable improvement at testing centres offering the computerised tests.
“The system is much faster. The person taking the test gets an immediate and accurate result; there’s no room for marking errors; it’s instant digital processing,” he told Cape Talk in February.
“It also, of course, means that it is harder to cheat. The booklet system had a couple of question templates, and these were widely in circulation with learner’s licence schools.”
However, the VF Plus disagreed, believing the new system’s extraordinarily high failure rate was due to poorly phrased questions that were difficult to understand.
Suspected “cash-for-driver’s licence” syndicate members
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1 commentsAs I have said before , this will just bring more illegal unlicensed drivers on the road. I have recently take the test after 30 years being selected for information only and passed it with flying colours. So somewhere our education system lare failing massively as some of the writers could not even understand the question in their own language. We are putting more stupid people into the world.