Two employees of Roodepoort Metal Exchange made an interesting find outside the business premises on Monday (15 September).
Just outside the gate of the business on Albertina Sisulu Road, close to a favourite spot for JMPD officers to sit, Chris van der Walt and one of his colleagues were cleaning up when they came across four pages torn from an Aarto Infringement fine book.
They immediately called the record.
The pages that were found are the carbon copies that are supposed to be left in the book after the original fine is handed to the motorist. It is a possibility that these pages were torn out to hide evidence of bribes that have been solicited.
When JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minnaar was contacted he was vague in explaining the matter. He said “it could have dropped out of an officer’s bag”, which does not explain why it was torn out of the book. Minnaar said an officer will be sent to collect the pages.
The record then contacted Justice Project South Africa chairperson Howard Dembovsky for more clarity on the matter.
Dembovsky asked the record to scan the documents and have it certified at the police station, which it did. According to Dembovsky tearing out these pages from a fine book is tantamount to corruption and not providing a proper explanation indicates “a cover up”.
When the officer arrived to collect the torn out papers, he confirmed that it was not supposed to be torn out and that the officer will have to be traced to explain. The officer who used the book is supposed to write a report, explaining why these pages are missing.
The scanned pages have been forwarded to Dembovsky for further comment.
The name of the officer appearing on the fines as well as his number is known to the record.
