A witness in the Mandeni testing centre fraud case admitted making a false affidavit under oath.
|||Durban - On a day marked by a series of small dramas, a witness in the Mandeni testing centre fraud case admitted making a false affidavit under oath.
Eleven former employees of the Mandeni Driving Licence Testing Centre - eight traffic officers and three clerks - along with nine driving school instructors or owners, are facing a total of 207 racketeering, corruption and fraud charges in the Eshowe Regional Court.
It is alleged that they issued scores of illegal licences in 2009 and 2010 and that, in some cases, the officers colluded with the driving school owners or instructors, who brought people to the centre for false licences.
The State charges that driving licence applicants were not examined or tested, that test sheets were fraudulently completed, and that licences were issued to people who were not competent to drive a vehicle.
As the court convened, prosecutor K Shazi told the magistrate that one of the accused, former driving instructor Patrick Jabulani Banda, was present but not fit to stand trial. Magistrate A Maharaj went out to the car park to ascertain for himself the condition of the accused.
He said that Banda, 40, had suffered serious injuries in a car accident and was unfit to stand trial.
“The constitution says everyone is entitled to a fair trial and in my opinion it is unfair to proceed against him at this stage,” said Maharaj as he withdrew the charges.
One witness, Primrose Njongo, 28, told the court that after she had failed her driving test at a Durban testing station, her instructor had told her “he knows of a place where people pass”.
She said she had given the instructor, referred to as “TP”, R6 000, and he had made a booking for her at the Mandeni testing centre.
On the day of the appointment she had waited at the centre to do the test but had been told there was no time to do it because “my time has passed”.
“TP said because my time has passed I must pay an extra R700.”
She had given him the money and he had then met a traffic official inside the office.
“Then I signed a form that said I had passed the (driving) test and I was given a temporary licence,” she told the court.
Under cross-examination by defence attorney Rakesh Maharaj, representing former traffic officer Brian Senzo Mthembu, 34, Njongo admitted that in her affidavit she had mentioned a sum of R1 000 paid to TP. “I lied because I thought if I told the truth I would be in trouble,” she said.
She told the court that when she had gone to Mandeni to fetch her permanent licence, the police had taken her aside. She had made an affidavit at the Durban Central police station.
“The affidavit you made under oath is incorrect,” said Maharaj.
“Yes, I did not pay R1 000, it was more than that,” said Njongo.
“You lied under oath?” asked Maharaj.
“Yes,” Njongo said.
The trial continues on Wednesday.
Daily News