Pretoria - Acting Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Services (SAPS) in Mpumalanga, Rex Machabi, has warned people in possession of fraudulent drivers licences to come forward and hand them over.
"We are sending a strong warning to those individuals in possession of fraudulent licences to come forward before we come to them, if not so, we will come and knock on their doors as we are in possession of their personal particulars," warned Machabi.
A community in Piet Retief had complained to the SAPS about the large number of people coming to their community to get drivers licences as if they were up for grabs.
"Candidates were not tested but were able to qualify as drivers. We then held an observation to qualify the claims and on 12 to 16 October and on 11 to 13 November, we observed with dismay that indeed it was true that the suspects were behaving unethical and against the confined conduct of licence examiners," explained Machabi.
He said during the investigation period, officials issued 20 fraudulent licences to the public.
The alleged corrupt officials were arrested on Tuesday for issuing fraudulent drivers licences without testing candidates.
"The three officials, two males and one female aged between 55 and 32 will appear before the Piet Retief Magistrates Court later today (Wednesday)," Machabi said.
Meanwhile, the case against 56 people, who were arrested with fraudulent licences at Ermelo, was postponed to 10 February 2010.
In September, an examiner in Piet Retief was found guilty and sentenced to four years imprisonment for fraudulently issuing learners and driving licences.
In October, a police Captain from Pongola was also sentenced to five years in jail without the option of a fine for buying a driving licence at the Piet Retief driving licence testing centre.
