Increasing reports of Traffic Cop Corruption

Roadside corruption is rearing its ugly head again, and it is effecting tourism really badly.  Tourists get targeted and that results in them leaving the country immediately without finishing their tour.

Unfortunately our own community is largely to blame for this crime getting out of control.  For many years you have heard stories about people paying off traffic cops to avoid high fines for speeding and other offences.  This behaviour inspired the habit of soliciting bribes from tourists.  Now it is a huge problem which is very hard to turn around.

Here are some recent reports:

Written by Chris Harvey

British tourists were stopped in Graskop recently for not stopping at a Stop Street where they had definitely stopped. A stand-off occurred, a R750 cash fine was requested, until the tourist pulled an anti-corruption card from his shirt pocket, at which point he was waved on with a grumpy smile. These cards WORK!

Kruger Lowveld Tourism is printing another 200 000 Roadside Anti-Corrution Cards for the festive season.  Please get yours from the office at Crossing Nelspruit.

In a second case, a Bourke’s Luck cop was caught red-handed when a tourist phoned the number on the card and reported the incident on site. Action is being taken against the cop in question.

Sadly, corruption is cropping up again and again, but whereas Mbombela and SAPS seem to be reading our letters and taking action to remedy their failings, the Traffic Department seems to be ignoring the problem. The last time this happened, we established that the reason was that corruption spread right to the top and everyone was on the take. I hope that is not the case now and that someone senior will step in. MR NKUNA, MRS NKUNA – that would be your department. And if it is not you, please tell us who we should be talking to!

Here are two more incidents, faced by one tourist, from an email received:

On 9 November an Australian family travelling North on the R40 was stopped immediately after Hazyview by traffic police, supposedly for not stopping at a stop sign which was out of the traffic cop’s line of vision! The cop produced a laminated piece of paper with fines listed on it, showing that he was going to fine them R2 000. But then he said he would only fine them R1000!

HE DID NOT WRITE OUT A TICKET OR A RECEIPT AND OBVIOUSLY JUST POCKETED THE MONEY! This traffic cop’s blatant dishonesty is not a surprise. Perhaps his superior also gets a cut to look the other way?

Then about 30 minutes later they were stopped again at Bushbuckridge. Another car had been pulled over and as he manoeuvered his large car around that vehicle his tyre touched the white line.

The female traffic cop felt that this was grounds to pull him over for a ticket, after seeing his Australian drivers licence. He pulled out his old South African drivers licence, explaining that he’d lived in South Africa for 28 years without incidents like this.

Clearly foreign visitors are being fleeced by these dishonest traffic cops because at the lodge others also had similar stories to tell.

To say that these people are disgusted by this incident is an understatement. They will not be returning to South Africa in a hurry.

That is what happens. We lose tourists. Enough said.