Eleven arrested for fraudulent roadworthy certificates in Limpopo

Eleven officials were arrested at a privately owned vehicle testing station in Marble Hall, Limpopo, on Wednesday on suspicion that they issued roadworthy certificates for vehicles that they never actually examined.

Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) spokesperson Simon Zwane said officers from its national traffic anti-corruption unit, the Hawks and Special Investigating Unit raided the SNJ testing station where they arrested the owner of the station, the manager, eight examiners and an administrative clerk.

"We found them burning some documents, and we suspect they were trying to hide evidence. They will appear in court on Friday to face charges of fraud and defeating the ends of justice," Zwane said.

The arrests in Marble Hall follow those in Lephalale on Monday, where three testing officials and a clerk were arrested for the same offence.

In the Monday raid, Zwane said three of the four officials arrested were repeat offenders as they had been arrested in April for the same offence and released on R1,000 bail each.

The four officials appeared in court on Tuesday and they were due to appear in the Lephalale magistrate’s court on Thursday for a bail application.

Zwane said the raids are part of "Operation Corolla" which has been initiated to combat the fraudulent issuing of roadworthy certificates. Zwane said unroadworthy vehicles counted among the top three major contributory factors to road deaths.