By Cllr Godwin Ratikwane
Chairperson of the Section 79 Municipal Public Accounts Committee
The Section 79 Chairperson for the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC), Cllr Godwin Ratikwane today, conducted a pre-inspection oversight at Tshwane Metro Police Department’s (TMPD) Pounding Depot in Region 3, after serious allegations of corruption was reported to the Chairperson.
A meeting with the city officials onsite formed part of the Chairperson’s oversight visit.
They two confirmed that there are elements of corruption in the area.
Another notable concern for the Chairperson was that the city’s contracted security company onsite
were not wearing a uniform, had no name tags or even PSiRA numbers on them.
Some of the key findings which were discovered by MPAC Chairperson during his visit is the unrecorded impounded vehicles, meaning that vehicles will be impounded and later be released without any receipts which proves that the vehicle owners have paid the fine as defined by the City’s by-laws.
Another challenge discovered is that once a vehicle is impounded, the TMPD Officers will inform with the security officers on duty not to register the vehicle upon entering the pounding depot so that the owners will be told to pay discounted rates directly to the TMPD officers as opposed to paying at the city’s designated pay point.
The infrastructure in the area is also dilapidated with no sign of recent maintenance work been done in the area.
The official onsite also informed the Chairperson that they are unable to
keep record of the correct count of the total number of impounded vehicles because they do not have adequate measures in place to help account for all the vehicles impounded daily, weekly and monthly.
They also indicated that since 2017 they have been waiting for CCTV cameras
to be installed.
Resolutions of the oversight visit include that the Committee will be calling for reports from the department concerned and conducts further oversight visits in area to mitigate corruption within the TMPD.