Thursday 7 August 2008

Corrupt or Corruptee

How often do you hear people talk about Traffic department in Gauteng? Actually people don’t even listen to you any more because there is nothing new you will ever hear. Whatever you new experience you have someone probably thousands have been trough that. Gauteng has become another Eastern Cape where corruption is part of official work. Traffic ever since I came to contact with them that is since I started driving, there was always bribery there corruption there but not to the magnitude of what we are witnessing today. When my wife took driving lessons her instructor told him that she would have to pay some extra fee for to get a date through his driving school. She ignored him and booked via Call centre.

There are so many stories about that call centre… to cut the story short she was told there was no date available, but she must keep on calling at least every hour. Fortunately she had a job where she had a phone. Little did she know that she will call every half an hour for 5weeks and hear the same line over and over “we are sorry there are no dates available” Seeing that her learners license might expire before She can even test once she joined the throngs to Rustenburg. There was no luck either as they only take a certain number of people per day, but interestingly over whelming majority on those people are Gautengers who spent their money to be there because their province failed them. I am told call centre was introduced to curb corruption, but the unemployed in our town ships cannot they really afford to call every half an hour for more than five weeks.

At long last she got a date but unfortunately there is no guarantee to pass so she failed. Would she start all over again with call a centre? Her friend from the Eastern Cape told her she has already paid someone in the Eastern Cape but he disappeared with her money and she can’t report him to the authorities. Desperate times call for desperate measure my wife was told of a guy in Jozi who can save her from her misery. They met at a secret spot and I was on call if anything untoward could happen to her.

This is where this became very interesting for me.

  • For R500 One can actually buy a date no questions asked (in the mean time people are calling day in day out and being told there are no dates.
  • For a refundable R2000 one can by the actual pass.( if you fail you get you money back)
  • Are you afraid to drive but you want a drivers license? You can have yours without lifting a finger… that is if you can fork out R6000.

I am sure so many people who will read this knew about it, I must admit that “amagent e kasi” (township dudes) have said this many times, but I don’t believe most of their crazy stories and this sounded like one of those. Can we really beat corruption? A friend of mine ask me if there is more corruption now than during apartheid….my answer was I can’t really compare the two. For me that government was a corruption on its own so what ever was happening below them was a picnic of four in a Monday working hours.

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