More than 900 cases of fraud and corruption uncovered at Johannesburg’s licensing departments and testing stations over the past eight years have resulted in the new management at the City of Johannesburg acting swiftly, suspending more than 70 officials.
Earlier in January‚ Tony Taverna-Turisan‚ spokesperson for Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba‚ said corruption was "deplorable"‚ promising that more suspensions would follow‚ after the arrest of seven officials at licensing departments in Sandton and Martindale.
Taverna-Turisan said at least 70 other officials were suspended by Monday.
"This is part of the process and we hope to see more arrests to be carried out in the near future, and we are working closely with the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority."
He said the 972 cases of fraud and corruption at licensing departments across Johannesburg between February 2008 and January 2016 had created more than R14m in losses through fraudulent activities.
"The mayor has made it clear that corruption is public enemy number one. We need to rid this City of corrupt individuals who enrich themselves at the expense of our residents. We need to create a professional public service‚ which serves the residents of our city with pride‚" Taverna-Turisan said.
The mayor’s office said it had made provision for some of the positions to be filled.
"About 40 new staff members were recruited prior to the operation and staff members from other sections within the licensing department will be deployed to the vacant positions, so as to eliminate the effect on the operations‚" Taverna-Turisan said.
Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) spokesperson Wayne Minnaar confirmed the suspensions of 71 licensing department officials across licensing and testing station across Johannesburg.
"More than 70 staff members have been suspended for alleged corruption — these include licensing offices in Midrand‚ Randburg‚ Marlboro‚ Roodepoort‚ Langlaagte and Martindale‚" he said. "Temporary staff will be used to fill vacancies quickly where it is possible."
Minnaar confirmed that criminal investigations by the Hawks were continuing.
South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) representative Paul Tlhabang said they were caught off guard and felt that the city and JMPD were not co-operating with them.
"We are not getting reasons as to why they’re not co-operating …. To our dismay‚ while we were waiting for their responses‚ they decided to serve letters of suspension to our members‚" he said.
Tlhabang said the union was currently assisting 80 licensing and testing station employees who had been suspended by the City.
TMG Digital/The Times
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.