South Africa’s Battle Against Fine Evasion: Corruption and Irregularities Revealed

South Africans Going to Extreme Lengths to Avoid Paying Fines

Corrupt Traffic and Licensing Officials Abetting Scofflaws

South Africans are going to extreme lengths to avoid paying fines, including transferring ownership of vehicles into deceased people’s names, creating fake shell entities, using fake traffic register numbers, and enlisting the assistance of corrupt licensing officials.

Ligwa Advisory Services, a forensic advisory firm looking into allegations of corruption and collusion at Gauteng’s Driving Licensing and Testing Centers (DLTCs), has found that some scofflaws have made avoiding paying fines an art-form.

Among the techniques used to avoid paying fines are:

• Transferring ownership of a vehicle into a deceased person’s name.
• Creating fake shell entities.
• Employing fake traffic register numbers.
• Enlisting the assistance of corrupt licensing officials.

Ligwa Consulting has also noted the following irregularities at many DLTCs:

• Traffic officials owning and running driving schools on the side.
• Runners acting as intermediaries for online booking systems.
• Runners creating and selling fraudulent eye-test certificates to the public.
• Officials allowing people to skip queues in exchange for money.

In response to the damning report, the department said, “A comprehensive relook at our licensing system is urgently necessary, if we are indeed serious about rooting out corruption.”

Conclusion:

The problem of people avoiding paying fines in South Africa is widespread and corrupt traffic and licensing officials are abetting scofflaws.

The government needs to take urgent action to address this problem.