By Bongani Majola
ONCE one of the most corrupt licensing centres in South Africa, the Johannesburg Metro Police Department's (JMPD) Loveday vehicle registration authority is now a model of best practice.
This was the assessment of Business Against Crime (BAC) project team leader Graham Wright, as he presented the best practice model to Gauteng MEC for Public Transport, Roads and Works, Khabisi Mosunkutu, in Johannesburg on Friday.
The Loveday facility was praised for its efforts to combat fraud and corruption in vehicle licensing and registration - and the model, developed jointly by BAC and the Gauteng Department of Transport, is being used as a blueprint for other licensing stations in the province.
The model was first implemented at Loveday in August 2001. It has now been implanted at five other stations in Johannesburg, including Sandton, Randburg, Langlaagte and Midrand. There a total of 28 such stations in the Gauteng province.
Whereas in the past a person registering or licensing a vehicle would go to only one cashier, who processed the entire application, the best practice model introduces a five-stage process, requiring the application to have been checked thoroughly by no fewer than five officials.
On entering Loveday, the applicant receives a barcoded number and is required to sit in a hall until the computer calls up the number. Once called, the applicant embarks on the first process: a complete enquiry on the nature of the application, requiring such things as identity documents, driver's licences or any required documents.
There is then the receiving process, the verification stage, the implementation and finally the cashier stage, "the only time when money changes hands", said acting deputy director of JMPD's licensing and prosecution unit, Carlie Heidt.
"A corrupt applicant will have to bribe at least five people," said Heidt, "but even then, the system is such that any given inquiry or application can be monitored at every stage."
Throwing the Gauteng transport department's full weight behind the best practice model, Mosunkutu vowed to put an end to "theft, fraud and corruption" in the licensing authorities.
"I am prepared to shut down vehicle testing stations and driver's licence testing centres if they don't do what is required to clean up the department," Mosunkutu said as he received the blueprint.
