On Monday 25 October 2021, the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court sentenced five former traffic officials from Umngeni Municipality for fraud.

In 2017, Hawks members from Durban Serious Corruption Investigation team received information from the Road Traffic Management Corporation about fraud and corruption activities at Umngeni Municipality Testing Centre. A joint operation was conducted and it was discovered that officials were assisting applicants to pass their driver’s learners test.

Investigation revealed that examiners were pointing out correct answers to learners on the computer screens. As a result the learners would pass the drivers learners test. A gratification of up to R3000.00 was allegedly paid by each learner prior the test.

All the accused were arrested in March 2018 and they appeared in court several times until they were all found guilty of fraud in November last year. Dumisani Nkala (52) was convicted for 49 counts of fraud and he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment suspended for five years on condition that he is not found guilty of fraud or theft during the period of suspension. He was further sentenced to three years correctional supervision.

Lindiwe Xulu (46) was convicted for 158 counts of fraud and she was sentenced to seven years direct imprisonment. Meshack Ndlovu (47) was convicted for seven counts of fraud and was sentenced to four years direct imprisonment. Matthews Zondi (55) was convicted of 274 counts of fraud and was sentenced to seven years direct imprisonment. Dumisani Phungula (49) was convicted for 15 counts of fraud and was sentenced to four years direct imprisonment.

All counts in each accused were taken as one for the purpose of sentencing.

Source: South African Police Service