Paid for a license, got nothing – a reader’s anger

Northam – I am writing as a very upset reader regarding the article in last week’s Platinum Bushvelder about the recent driving license fraud crackdown. According to your article, multiple people were arrested during the operation conducted by the Hawks and the Road Traffic Management Corporation in Limpopo on 10 February 2025.

I live in Northam, and I have firsthand experience with this corruption. I paid a Northam police officer R2,000 to obtain a driver’s license for my mother. He took the money, promised the license, and then disappeared — never delivering what I had paid for.

To the cop who scammed me:
I sincerely hope you are among the ones arrested.
I know I will likely never get my money back, but I still hope I do.

Every time people visit traffic offices, officials sit around filing their nails, eating food, and making everyone wait in long, unnecessary queues. You do your absolute best to be the least efficient workers in the country. And when we try to follow the system properly, we get nowhere — forcing us to resort to bribes. But even after paying, we still don’t receive what we were promised.

Anonymous, Northam