Gauteng motorists will be getting new number plates in 2023, Premier Panyaza Lisufi announced on Tuesday.
The Premier was presenting the findings of several investigative reports this week, which included issues presented by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) around licencing departments.
The report has found evidence of fraudulent eye tests being used, ‘free dumping’, and collusion between examiners, applicants and certain driving schools.
Lesufi stated that the new number plates were a component of the government’s plan to completely overhaul the licensing system to enhance their efforts to combat crime.
“It’s part of overhauling and ensuring that we fight these types of crime because a motor vehicle is a source of crime. If we don’t have the necessary details of the right owner and how that vehicle id going to be utilised and who’s utilising it and where that vehicle is, our fight against crime will be defeated.”
Lesufi did not go into details on this SIU’S investigation but outlined some of the findings into fraud and corruption at traffic departments.
Of note he said, it was found that optometrist certificates needed to gain access to licenses were fraudulent, and there were acts of fee dumping and manipulation of licencing processes by officials.
Fee dumping, he said is where licence applicants are allowed to proceed with the process despite being in areas. Through collusion with officials, applicants can bypass this by dumping the fees onto other citizens or deceased people.
Lesufi also presented findings made by the Special Investigating Unit around licensing departments.
He said the SIU also found that applicants, driving schools, examiners, and other officials at the licensing department collude together to manipulate the queue, where applicants can get ahead of the line by going through driving schools, and also engage in other forms of serious corruption.
On the new plates, Lesufi did not specify the nature of the changes that motorists can anticipate.
Source: IOL, Business Tech, Eyewitness News, The South African, image from Twitter: @CliffShiko