OFFICIALS at the Traffic Department have corruptly amassed taxi permits that they are now renting out for staggering amounts to desperate taxi operators. Some connected people have also used crooked officials at the department to acquire taxi permits to rent out.
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As a result of the rampant corruption at the department, a D-permit that costs M25 through the official channels is now being rented out for between M7 000 and M12 000 per year.
Insiders this week told thepost that some department officials have corruptly acquired D-permits using their children, friends and relatives to cover their tracks.
To fully milk the system the officials and the connected few have created artificial bottlenecks in the system to frustrate those that try to get the permit through the official channels.
Once discouraged by the “slow” official channel, desperate applicants either bribe the officials or rent their permits. The officials make a killing either way.
The corruption has become so pervasive that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport is about to give up on rooting it out.
“This now requires law enforcement agencies to deal with,” said Ntumeleng Ntšekhe, the ministry’s spokesperson.
Ntšekhe said last year they tried to curb the practice by issuing permits to all applicants.
“We were aware that we would never solve the problem until we issued the permits to all interested taxi operators,” Ntšekhe said.
“It is unfortunate that only a few applicants showed up.”
“If this practice is continuing there is nothing we can do now. We are merely issuers of the permits. We do not enforce the law.”
Ntšekhe said the department is unaware that its officials rent out the permits.
“We were aware of some taxi operators doing that and we opened the door for everyone to apply,” she said.
Limema Phohlo, chairman of the Road Transport Board whose tenure expired last December, said they were “aware that the rot was everywhere, even among the officials but we could not exactly know who the officials were”.
“We knew of someone who had 20 permits and he was renting out each for M12 000 per year,” Phohlo said.
“The persistence of this practice means that it is beyond the board, it needs the minister.”
When functional the board is made up of the Traffic Commissioner, a technical adviser, representatives of commuters, car dealers, and passenger and freight transport operators.
One of its main roles is to issue taxi permits, determine routes and set fares.
Several taxi operators told thepost, some on condition of anonymity, that they hired permits from other operators and the department officials “because of desperation”.
“Getting the D-Permit is not easy. You need to have contacts inside,” said Thato Tlali who is renting a D-permit.
“You will be told that there are no open routes and many other nonsensical explanations.”
Another taxi operator who preferred to be identified only as Mofokeng said he hired two permits.
“My friend introduced me to his friend there and immediately he brought someone who rented his permits to me at M7 000 a year each,” Mofokeng said.
So rampant and brazen is the corruption that some people are advertising D-permits for rent on Facebook.
One T Masia of Matšoareng advertised a 4+1 taxi for M35 000 plus a D-Permit for Maseru routes through a Facebook page called Maseru D-Permits Sell & Hire.
There are also other people offering to rent out a D-Permit for M7 000 a year or sale for M10 000. The owners of the wall could not be found on their listed phone numbers.
Ramos Hanyane rents out D-Permits for a friend.
Avoiding mentioning the friend’s name, he told thepost that he was unaware that it was illegal to rent out the permits.
“There are many people who are desperate for the permits even now,” Hanyane said.
“They keep calling,” he said.
It is illegal to transfer the D-Permit or substitute another taxi unless there is a breakdown or other unforeseeable emergency with an authorised vehicle.
The Road Traffic Act says if there is a breakdown or unforeseeable emergency the owner reports the substitution to a police station within 48 hours.
The Act says the permit holder “shall, within 10 days thereof report such substitution to the Board in writing”.
The Act says the permit holder “shall, within 10 days thereof report such substitution to the Board in writing”.
“No such substitution shall last more than 30 days without the consent of the Board.”
“Where a permit holder transfers his vehicle which relates to the permit to any other person by way of security, it shall be an offence, except with a written consent of the Board for such other person to operate that vehicle under such permit,” the Act reads.
“A person guilty of an offence under this Act, for which no special penalty is provided, is in the case of first offence liable to M500 and three months imprisonment, and in the case of a second and subsequent offence, to a fine of M1 000 and six months imprisonment,” it reads.
“The court convicting a person of an offence involving an unauthorised operation of a public motor vehicle may declare the motor vehicle or the convicted person’s rights in such vehicle, to be forfeited to the State.”
The department registered 2 897 sedan taxis (4+1s) last year, 2 705 minibuses, and 1 403 buses.
In April 2008 the board resolved to limit the number of public transport operators, 4+1s and mini-buses, to five per operator per route.
“This was influenced in part by the observation that certain few known individuals were controlling a significant number of operating licenses on various routes,” Chabeli Ramolise said.
Ramolise, a local risk and governance consultant, conducted a study titled Competition Issues in the Transport Sector in Lesotho.
The study was conducted under the African Conference on Computational Mechanics (AFRICOMP) programme which aims at strengthening regional institutions as well as creating synergies between national competition authorities.
The objective was to evaluate the situation, the structure and the functioning of the road transport sector (passenger transport and freight transport services) from a competition perspective.
He said the taxi industry is “one of the highly congested segments of the road transport subsector”.
Many operators have registered under the names of close family members and friends, but still under common control.
In the 4+1 segment across the country, there are operators with a significant number of licensed vehicles on the road, although the number could not be established.
The Maseru Route Transport Operators (MRTO) spokesman, Lebohang Moea, said the problem will not be solved easily because many people are willing to hire permits.
“We suggested to the ministry that all the people who hired the D-Permits should come forward so that they are legally changed into their names,” Moea said.
“Only a few came,” he said.
“They are willingly hiring the permits.”
He said the past Road Transport Board stopped issuing permits to people who were yet to buy cars to avoid this “but these people continue to rent the permits”.
“We don’t know how it can be solved.”
Caswell Tlali
