Pretoria – The Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) has confiscated more municipal vehicles that were being misused by the municipality’s staff for their personal business.
Metro police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Kelebogile Thepa said one of the vehicles, a Ford Ranger, was being used to transport staff from a cleaning company.
“On Wednesday May 24, 2023 between 6.30am and 7am, members of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department’s Security and Loss Control Unit impounded two municipal vehicles in Kempton Park and Tembisa following misuse by the City of Ekurhuleni employees,” said Thepa.
“Upon receiving a tip-off from a reliable source about City of Ekurhuleni employees using the council vehicle to drop off their children at school and using it to drop off staff at work, the officers swiftly acted on the information received and were led to a primary school in Birchacres in Kempton Park, where an unmarked white Ford Ranger from the EMPD was confiscated.
“Additional information led officers to New Road near the Esselen Park Licensing Department, where staff from a cleaning company were being dropped off using an unmarked Ford Ranger from (Ekurhuleni) Security and Loss Control,” said Thepa.
The vehicles were immediately confiscated and Thepa said internal investigations would follow soon.
“The EMPD would like to reiterate that those who make use of council resources that are meant to service the public at large, should refrain from such as these resources are for the purpose of service delivery,” she said.
Earlier this week, the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department pounced on three municipal officials and confiscated the official vehicles being used for personal business.
At the time, Thepa said the three municipal vehicles were seized at a high school in Benoni where the city’s officials were dropping off children.
“On Tuesday May 23, 2023 at about 6am, members of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department’s Security and Loss Control Unit impounded three municipal vehicles following misuse by City of Ekurhuleni council employees in the Benoni area,” Thepa said.
“On receiving a tip-off about City of Ekurhuleni employees using council vehicles to drop off their children at school, members swiftly acted on the information received and were led to a high school in Benoni where the law enforcers discovered three vehicles, namely a marked BMW belonging to the EMPD, a marked Ford Ranger belonging to the Disaster and Emergency Management Services Department and an unmarked white Ford Ranger belonging to the Parks Department, inside the school parking lot.”
She said the three vehicles were confiscated from the drivers and internal investigations would follow.
IOL