We all knew that they were going to be bad, but to be told that one in four of Jozi’s drivers were asked for a bribe in 2010 is quite something. 154 440 motorists were asked to pay a bribe, but only 184 cases of corruption were reported.

“Unlawful” is probably a word that is a little too futile to use for these statistics, “lawless” seems a word that may be more fitting.

Of the 184 cases of corruption that were reported, 37 officers were found guilty, and only 19 were dismissed – that was between 2009 and 2011.

Corruption Watch, the newly formed anti-corruption watch dog, was reporting on data based largely on a Stats SA survey and information collected from the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department.

Corruption Watch executive director, David Lewis:

We often hear the excuse that the public is responsible for offering bribes to traffic officers. But we look up to the law enforcement officers to be accountable and exemplary in their behaviour. The public would be very reluctant to offer a bribe if they knew that traffic officers always upheld the law.

He refused to be pushed into saying whether corruption within the JMPD had become a “way of life”.

However, he said that in motorists’ minds, the impression had been created that traffic officers would sacrifice the law in return for a bribe.

Of Gauteng’s reported 600 000 drivers, it was estimated that 429 000 of them had a bribe solicited from them by traffic officials.

The hardest hit motorists were taxi drivers. They represented soft targets for corrupt traffic officers as they often had unroadworthy vehicles and operated without the correct permits.

The report said that taxi drivers often paid “standard rates” of between R40 and R200.

Lewis also stated that reports were surfacing of male traffic officers sexually assaulting or extorting sexual favours from female drivers.

These figures were not available, but Lewis explained that, “the function of traffic policing [appeared to be] taking on uglier and uglier dimensions.”

[Source: Sowetan]