The New South Africa

ONE FOR THE ROAD

DRIVER'S LICENCES

Baleka Kgositsile Baleka Mbete Kgositsile, deputy Speaker of Parliament, is one of 44 people being investigated by Mpumalanga's detectives for being in possession of a fraudulent car driver's licence. However, Kgositsile claims she was legally issued with a licence after being given special treatment, as she is "a very busy person with children scatterd all over the country, a job in Cape town and a constituency in Kwazulu. I don't have time to stand in queues. I am not required to stand in queues at airports and things".
She says Mpumalanga's MEC for safety and security, Steve Mabona, sent his luxury state-issue car and personal bodyguards to collect her in Johannesburg and take her for a driving test in Delmas on October 1st, 1996. Mabona ordered his traffic chief, Henry Brazer, to travel 350 km from Nelspruit to Delmas to test her for both her learner's an driver's licences "with all the necessary respect". Brazer got out of his sick bed after a minor heart attack, phoned his brother-in-law, chief traffic inspector Frederick Bezuidenhout, and ordered him to fetch all the nessary forms and stamps from the Kabokweni test centre after hours, and without informing the manager. However, the Sunday Times found that:

There is no record of Kgositsile being tested at the Delmas test centre;
The licence was not issued at Delmas, as per Departement of Transport regulations, but at Kabokweni in the former Kangwane homeland, 350 km away;
Mbete-Kgositsile has no personal or constituency links to Mpumalanga, where the licence was issued;
The licence was issued during the night of September 30th, 1996, before she was allegedly tested at midday in Delmas on October 1st;
Brazer is not a registered or certified testing official and was on sick leave at the time;
An internal departmental investigation into alleged irregularities in the issuing of Kgositsile's licence was squashed by the head of the Mpumalanga provincial traffic department, adv Stanley Soko;
A junior traffic officer, John Muller, who reported the irregular issuing of a licence to Mbete-Kgositsile, was subsequently suspeded by Mabona, accusing him of being a racist counter-revolutionary, withdrew his state-issue car, and stopped his housing subsidy.

Testifying before the Moldenhauer commission of inquiry, Mbete-Kgositsile could not remember any particulars of the tests she claimed she completed, and admitted that she did not perform the required three point turn, an handbrake emergency stop, or parallel parking.
Three days later, she released a statement in which she said she regretted "perceptions that she had used her influence to jump the queue" (sic) in getting a driver's licence.
Two months later, replying to a question in Parliament, Sydney Mufamadi, Minister of Safety and Security, said:
"It has been established that it is not a normal practice for a person who lives in Kwazulu Natal and attends Parliament in Cape Town to apply for a driver's licence in Mpumalanga. Such a practice constitutes a contravention of the Road Traffic Act".
He added that, in terms of the same law, if such a driver's test took place in Delmas and the licence was issued elsewhere, this licence would be invalid.

- Sunday Times, Rapport

OFFICIALESE

"The Department (of Transport), in collaboration with the various provinces, is in the process of implementing the uniqueness checking of the VIN of motor vehicles by the NaTIS. Initially the uniqueness checking of the VIN will be conducted on vehicles that are newly introduced to the NaTIS only. Subsequent to this phase, the uniqueness checking on the VIN will be enabled for existing vehicles being registered upon change of title holde and/or owner.
"The Department would like to point out that according to regulation 283C the title holder (bank) would be responsible for tendering such a vehicle of which the VIN duplicates to the applicable Vehicle Theft Unit of the SAPS...
"Please do not hestitate to contact the Department, should you have any further queries in this regard".

- Extract from a missive by the Director General of Transport to all clients.

CRASH COURSE

The ANC put our a press alert during 1997 that the following Saturday was to be a public holiday to mark "National Women's Collison Day". It did not say whether deputy speaker Beleka Mbete-Kgotsitsile, whose illegal driver's licence was revoked, would attend.

DRIVING IN STYLE

Mpumalanga's government ordered ten luxury BMW 528's at a cost of R2,3 million in December 1997, shortly after it announced that budget constraints had forced it to cut all capital projects, including those for new schools and roads. The cars were to replace ten Mercedes-Benz cars which were purchased three years earlier in 1994.
The cars were ordered despite the fact that they each cost R77 000 more than is allowed for my ministerial handbook regulations.
Jackson Mthembu, the transport MEC, dismissed Transport Minister Mac Maharaj's call for MEC's to follow his lead and drive cheaper cars as "impractical and out of touch".

DRIVING ABILITY

Jessie Duarte resigned as Gauteng MEC for Safety and Security after accusations of mismanagement, including driving her official car without a driver's licence.
Weeks after resigning, Duarte reported at the Johannesburg Municipal testing grounds to take her driver's test.
She failed the test when she drove on the right-hand side of the road after starting off.
The report of the Moerane commission, which investigated alleged irregularities by Duarte as MEC for Safety and Security, was tabled in July 1998. The ANC decided not to refer it to the Attorney General for his attention, but to treat it "internally" as a disciplinary matter. The commission found that Duarte, together with three officials in her office, was possibly an accessory in covering up details of a car accident in which she was involved as the driver; that she drove an official car without a drivers licence, and that she used official funds for an air ticket for a boyfriend who accompanied her on a holiday to Portugal.

LOOK MA, NO DRIVER!

The National Road Traffic Bill of 1996 contained this definition:

""Bus" means "a motor vehicle designed or adapted for the conveyance of more than 16 persons (including the driver, if any)".

Did Transport Minister Mac Maharaj see something in Atlanta whilst attending the Olympic Games which he hasn't told us about?

MONKEY-BUSINESS ABOUT NUMBER PLATE

The provinces of the new South Africa started dishing out their own distinctive car registration number plates. The idea is that the first number in the series is to be presented to the Premier of the province. Each number plate consists of three letters of the alphabet, excluding vowels, followed by thee numbers from 000 to 999, and a letter or letters indicating the province. The Premier of the Northern Province, Mr Ngoako Ramathlodi, returned the prestigious number plate awarded to him. It read: BBB000N.

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