On Monday, driving school owners and taxi operators briefed MEC for Roads and Transport Bheki Nkosi on the alleged corrupt activities of some call centre agents at the Gauteng Shared Service Centre.

Driving instructors told Nkosi they were made to wait as long as three months for a test date for their clients if they refused to pay bribes of between R200 and R700.

The eNATIS system has made it impossible to bypass the call centre when reserving a test date because every booking has to be allocated a call centre reference number.

The centre was introduced to stop money exchanging hands at testing grounds but now it appears it is being used to extort cash from the public.

A Johannesburg instructor who refused to be named has told Times LIVE that some of her colleagues say they meet call centre agents at night, to avoid getting caught because all incoming calls at the centre are recorded.

But spokesman for Gauteng Roads and Transport Kendridge Mathabathe says the decision to close the call centre will not be taken lightly.

“There are about 400 people working in the call centre ? how do you close them down and chuck them out? As government we cannot operate in that way when dealing with people,” he says.

Mathabathe says the decision to shut down the centre could only be made after extensive consultation with stakeholders.

He has urged the public not to pay bribes.

“It takes two to tango. In any corrupt transaction there is a corrupter and a corrupted,” he says.

AUDIO: Licence centre faces possible closure