A report has surfaced today revealing that the Johannesburg Metro Police Department which is the local traffic police had complaints of bribery amounting to R1.5 million in one single day. I think what this does is highlight how rampant corruption is within the traffic police department. Everyone knew things were bad, but this goes to a whole new level of bad.
Not all of these bribes had been paid as these were all complaints reported and submitted to the department by individuals who had been extorted or tried to be extorted. One can only imagine the real number with those having paid bribes and have not lodged a complaint which would be the bulk of the payments. Those reporting would be the minority so one can only imagine how corrupt the traffic police are and cannot be trusted.
The report was the result of questions tabled in parliament and the answer revealed how bad things really were and out of control. One report stated there were 456 complaints of fraud/corruption and extortion. The result of these complaints was that in Johannesburg 17 officers were fired and another 47 placed on suspension. In Durban 115 officers were investigated with 7 suspended and one fired. Pretoria had investigated 314 officers, 28 of which were found guilty of bribery with 17 being fired.
The problem is if there is no punishment for these offences with less than 30% being charged then nothing changes and it is business as usual. The other worrying part not mentioned is the new driving penalties are point based which will affect your license if you accumulate enough which will mean the bribes will increase in the amount requested.
A friend of mine used to catch the crooked traffic officials by spying on them from afar overlooking the N3 highway between Johannesburg and Durban. He used to film them overlooking the freeway using farmers fields because the police used to set up in the same positions each day. He was the only undercover operation I knew that existed and caught hundreds of officers in his sting operations.
The most I have been stopped in a single day is 5 times with them all asking for bribes and they also managed to lose my license in the process when they gave mine to another motorist. This shows you how efficient they are and cannot do simple tasks and this is all about how to make the extra money through bribing motorists. I always ask for the fine if I have done something wrong like speeding, but the chances are they will not want to write a ticket and after turning down a bribe will let you leave because there will be plenty more speeding cars willing to accept a bribe.
The worrying part of the R1.5 million bribery complaints in one day in Johannesburg is that if every one was R1000 that would mean 1500 instances and this would be hundreds of crooked traffic cops. We experienced crooked cops after stopping our one delivery trying to find out what business we were involved with and followed the vehicle to the warehouse. We chased them away because they were up to no good as this was not normal police work.
Unfortunately untrained people are being given a badge of authority and are abusing these powers. Those in charge of these police officers are no better being part of the problem and why this will never be resolved until there is a complete reset.
