The KwaMhlanga testing centre in Mpumalanga will be revamped at a cost of R400 000 in an attempt to curb corruption.
The KwaMhlanga testing centre in Mpumalanga will be revamped at a cost of R400 000 in an attempt to curb corruption.
The centre is one of several in the province accused of issuing fake driver’s licences and roadworthy certificates.
“The idea is to curb corruption by ensuring that documents are not handled and processed by one person,” a spokesman for the provincial department of local government, traffic control and traffic safety, Simphiwe Kunene told .
He said the steering committee in charge of implementing the best practise model at KwaMhlanga had approved the building plans and that contractors are expected to start work in mid-March. The customer counters have been separated from office functions, while the various stages of the registration process have been separated to ensure the entire transaction is more secure.
An official explained recently that previously only one person handled each transaction. With the new system, at least three people are involved in the registration process; one person will do the roadworthy test, another registers the vehicle and a third person does the transfer of ownership. This would make it difficult for the crime syndicates because it would be hard to bribe all the people involved in the process.
The centre will be closed during the revamp and members of the public are urged to go to centres in Marble Hall, Groblersdal and Witbank for their learners and drivers licenses or roadworthy tests.
Mpumalanga has 17 municipal testing centres and one provincial testing centre that tests for both learners and drivers’ licences, while there are three provincial centres that test for learners’ licences only.
Kunene also said that traffic officials in Mpumalanga had been given salary increases of up to 30 per cent.
He said it was part of a bid to improve their working conditions as well as reduce the temptation to accept bribes. The processing of the salary increases was completed this month and will be backdated to July last year.
