The KwaZulu-Natal Transport Department is working on a computerised learner’s licence system that it hopes will combat fraud.
The KwaZulu-Natal Transport Department is working on a computerised learner’s licence system that it hopes will combat fraud.
The KZN transport MEC S’bu Ndebele said they were working with the national department on the computerised learners licence test. The test operates from a touch screen computer with audio and visual elements and caters for all applicants, including illiterate people. The system is to incorporate all 11 official languages.
“We are putting this system in place to combat fraud and corruption, to level the playing fields and to enhance road safety.
The National Department of Transport has awarded a tender for the compilation of the question bank consisting of approximately 1400 learner driver testing questions.
”Tests will be randomly selected, which means, for example, in a class of 30 applicants, different tests will be done by the applicants at the same time,” said the department.
Once the tender has been awarded, three pilot sites will be used to test the system for about one year,” said the department.
One of these test sites will be Mkondeni in Pietermaritzburg. Once the system proves successful it will be rolled out to the entire country, which will take about 18 months.
The department said earlier this year that anyone who cheats during a learner’s or driver’s examination will also be prohibited from applying for a licence or permit for a specific period from the date of the offence. The person who cheats will also forfeit any payments made and any licence or permit issued or authorised will be cancelled.
Ndebele said the department was focused on rooting out corruption in the province. “To date, people ranging from clerks to test station owners, traffic officers and owners of driving schools have been arrested on charges relating to fraud, corruption and bribery, and conspiracy to commit a crime,” he said.
In one case, a former employee at the Goble Road (Windsor Park) Licensing Bureau confessed to receiving money in return for assisting applicants for learner’s licence tests to cheat in their exams.
Noreen Desire DeGee, of Rosehill, pleaded guilty to 15 counts of fraud in that she gave those sitting for the exam question books with the answers or filled them in herself.
According to the charge sheet, she had worked with driving school owners and instructors who paid her between R250 and R450. She will be sentenced on March 19. A further eight people from driving schools will go on trial in May on similar charges.
