​Arrest of further seven corrupt officials

This morning a further seven licensing centre officials were arrested by the Hawks on charges of fraud and corruption.

Four of the suspects are from the Martindale Bulk Licensing Department, while the remaining three are from the Langlaagte Licensing Department.
The seven suspects will be appearing in the specialised commercial crimes court this morning.

This brings the total number of licensing centre officials arrested to date to 15. The remaining 100 licensing officials who were identified in the forensic report will be arrested in coming weeks.

We have also acted swiftly in ensuring that 72 of the allegedly corrupt licensing centre officials are suspended from their jobs. All 72 officials were given an opportunity to provide reasons as to why they should not be suspended, however their reasons were found to be unsatisfactory. We hope to conduct the disciplinary hearings as soon as possible. Due legal process will be followed at all times.

Between January 2008 and February 2016, 972 alleged fraudulent transactions at a total value of R14,717,444.00 were identified within the City of Johannesburg (CoJ).

The schedule below summaries the different CoJ Licensing Centres, the total amount of transactions and the total Rand value allegedly lost from each centre:

Licensing centre
 Incidents
 Sum of Arrears &
Penalties
created
 
              R 14 717 444
 
Johannesburg - Martindale
 102
 R 2 101 586
 
Johannesburg - Wemmer
 25
 R 571 861
 
Kliptown
 7
 R 44 528
 
Langlaagte
 426
 R 5 114 020
 
Midrand
 89
 R1 332 619
 
Randburg
 37
 R 387 604
 
Roodepoort
 84
 R 1 333 983
 
Sandton
 202
 R 3 831 244
 
Grand Total
 972
 R 14 717 444
 

I would like to thank General Shadrack Sibiya and his team for their exemplary work, and their ‘no fear or favour’ approach to rooting out corruption in this City. Working closely with the Hawks, SAPS, the Prosecuting Authority, JMPD and the residents of this City, we will continue to wage war on corruption.

I would also like to ask our residents for patience while we continue to rid our licensing centres of corrupt officials. We have hired an additional 40 new staff members, and staff members from other sections within the Licensing Department will be deployed to vacant positions so as to minimise the effect on operations at the centres.

I have made it clear that corruption is public enemy number one in Johannesburg. We will not rest until we rid this City of corrupt individuals who enrich themselves at the expense of our residents. We must create a professional public service, which serves the residents of our city with pride.

Cllr Herman Mashaba
Executive Mayor
City of Johannesburg

For further information, please contact:

Tony Taverna-Turisan
Director of Communications
Office of the Executive Mayor
City of Johannesburg
Tel: 011 407 7375
Cellular: 082 920 9708
Email: tonyt@joburg.org.zaThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it