Detectives from the Eastern Cape travelled to Cape Town to arrest a taxi owner who will be charged with issuing fake funeral permits.
This led to a large convoy of minibus taxis from the Western Cape flooding into the Eastern Cape ahead of the Easter weekend.
Provincial traffic authorities stopped dozens of vehicles at Aberdeen where some were turned back to the Western Cape.
In a statement on Saturday, EC Transport MEC, Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe, welcomed the arrest of the 44-year-old taxi owner she said is believed to be behind the fake funeral permit scam.
“The arrest was made by a team of Eastern Cape detectives from the Commercial Crimes Unit. Their investigations led them to Cape Town to execute the arrest,” the MEC said.
“The suspect is facing charges of fraud, which enabled dozens of people to cross from the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape and vice versa, in contravention of the National Lockdown regulations.”
Tikana-Gxothiwe said the movement of people from province to province, especially from the Western Cape, has been one of their biggest headaches as it battles with an ever-rising number of COVID-19 cases.
She said an investigation into the possible involvement of government officials in the scam was at an advanced stage.
