A bus is traveling on the asphalt highway. Picture: iStock
The outspoken anti-public corruption campaigner and chairman of the African Unite Borders Bus Trucks Association (AUBBTA), Cross Border Road Transportation Agency (CBRTA), has accused the officials of the Cross Border Road Transportation Agency (CBRTA) of abuse of power and harassment and tarnishing his company’s reputation.
This comes after one of his buses received an exorbitant spot fine from the agency’s officers for an unexplained permit regulation violation on Monday.
On top of that, the same officials slapped Mukhwathi with alleged trumped-up charges of fraud, which he claimed had no substance other than to punish him for speaking out against state corruption on the road.
Mukhwathi said the officials had an ulterior motive to harass and shut him off when they pulled over the bus and slapped the driver with a whopping R2000 spot fine near Pumulani toll plaza in Limpopo on Monday. He said they fined the vehicle and told his staff that Mukhwathi was talking too much in the media.
“Last week I was called to attend a bus meeting where I was told to stop talking to the media, etc. Furthermore, some law enforcement agency people are telling our drivers that they are writing the fine because your boss (Mukhwathi) is talking too on the media houses,” Mukhwathi said.
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Mukhwathi, who was known for campaigning against alleged corruption involving spot fines issued by CBRTA officials on the road between South Africa and neighbouring countries.
He alleged that the officials frequently lurked along the road and on both Pumulani Toll Plaza and Beit Bridge border points to issue spot fines of up to R2 500 to bus and truck drivers without issuing receipts or using secure money collection methods on behalf of the Department of Transport.
“Since we report criminal activities or corruption by CBRTA members, we end up being victimised like they are doing to me now. Our buses are issued with spot fines ranging from R2500 at Pumlani Plaza and again at Beit Bridge, where we are issued with a R2500 spot fine, which totals to R5000 for a single trip. This means for a return trip, we must pay R10 000 for our vehicles.”
“We are very concerned, and we suspect that these spot fine tickets are not accounted for because bus operators are paying in hard cash on the street instead of to the Department of Transport cashiers. Why are they not using speed points or credit cards where we can pay and not in cash? On top of that, this money is transport in car of some individual officials, and there is no banking happening,” Mukhwathi said.
On Tuesday, the CBRTA law enforcement and regulatory committee and their lawyer accused Mukhwathi of having committed fraud but did not explain to him how he did that.
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They claimed the bus did not belong to him, when the vehicle was actually registered under his name.
An agitated Mukhwathi took the department to court, and the matter would be heard in Pretoria High Court on Thursday after he complained against the CBRTA for harassment, defamation of character, and damage to the reputation of his company against the agency’s officials.
He wanted the court to grant him an urgent order to restrain the CBRTA officers from harassing him, defamation and continuing to tarnishing his bus firm’s image.
Nobody could be reached for a comment from the Department of Transport.
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