It is good to see that people are starting to fight back against corrupt traffic and metro cops who try to extract bribes from motorists for what are often trumped-up offences.
Corruption Watch has received 1,355 reports of traffic cops trying to solicit bribes since 2012, according to the Sunday Times.
But that number is just the tip of the iceberg as most people pay up and drive off, figuring they got off lightly.
So the bulk of the bribery incidents go unreported.
Soliciting a bribe is wrong, but paying the bribe is also wrong.
While 60% of the reported bribery cases involving traffic cops stem from Gauteng, none of the other provinces, including the Eastern Cape, is immune.
However, some motorists in Gauteng have had enough of crooked officials and are not only refusing to pay the bribes but also reporting the rogue officers.
Last week, a Pretoria motorist reported two Tshwane metro police officers for allegedly trying to intimidate him and solicit a bribe.
“I decided to speak up because too many people I know have been victims of this form of harassment and abuse by rogue elements in the police force,” the Pretoria resident told the Sunday Times.
A UN employee was also allegedly harassed and taken in on a spurious charge a week ago.
The man was released two hours later after diplomatic police intervened but, he said, before they arrived the cops had allegedly been trying to intimidate him into paying a bribe.
“It was very stressful, but I stayed calm because I knew I had done nothing wrong and I was not going to pay a bribe for any reason,” he said later.
Corruption Watch says more and more people are exposing this type of corruption.
Its Veza Tool, an open data platform where police misconduct can be reported, received more than 70 complaints in just one month after its launch in February, of which 30% were related to bribery.
The people who refused to pay bribes are to be commended.
For too many, it is an easy way out of trouble, real or imagined, but it is this attitude that fuels the problem.
The only way to nip bribery in the bud is for people to say no — and then to report the corrupt officers.
Let us not give it the oxygen it needs to thrive.
HeraldLIVE