Mthetho Ndoni

Mthetho Ndoni

Top car manufacturing company General Motors South Africa (GMSA) in Port Elizabeth will launch a high-level investigation after several employees and managers were accused of using fake or invalid drivers' licences to lease company cars.

Reports have been received that the Nelson Mandela traffic department was investigating a similar scam at Volkswagen South Africa (VWSA) in Uitenhage.

Most of those being investigated by GMSA are believed to be newly-employed workers using fake and invalid drivers' licences.

GMSA reportedly suspended all the workers and banned them from entering into lease agreements with the company.

VWSA and GMSA offer cars on lease to employees and staff members at preferential rates.

GMSA spokesman Denise van Huyssteen confirmed that the company was investigating fake drivers' licences.

She declined to disclose the number of workers found with these drivers' licences and how the company uncovered the scam.

However, VWSA spokesman Bill Stevens denied that some of the company's employees were using fake licences to lease company cars.

Chief of traffic and licensing in the Nelson Mandela metro, Hamilton Totoyi, said there had been an increase in the number of fake drivers' licences in the region.

"If the name of the person does not appear in the system, that means the licence is invalid," said Totoyi

The regional secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, Irvin Jim, said the union was aware that several of the workers at GMSA were implicated.