Magwaba Bus Service, which has been hit by a spate of fraudulent tickets in the past, has been hit again. The latest fraud racket surfaced on Friday evening, when passengers were boarding buses at the Spar bus rank to their respective destinations.

An observant bus inspector noticed a different ticket from those issued by the company and immediately called the passenger to the company’s office that is situated at the bus rank.

Bus inspector Shadrack Mudzanani said he was doing his routine inspection in a bus heading for Mauluma from Thohoyandou on Friday around 5:15.

“I had almost finished checking the tickets, when I noticed this suspicious-looking ticket. Upon a closer, look I noticed that it had features that were not the same as those we sell to our commuters,” he said. Mudzanani said he immediately took the ticket and the passenger to the office in order to verify his suspicions.

The number of the ticket, 14059, matched the original ticket in the receipt book, but the sides and the texture of the ticket were far different from the original one. He said that it was rare to find fraudulent tickets, but could not rule out the possibility of a syndicate specializing in this type of fraud. Mudzanani said on questioning the suspect, it was found that the holder of the ticket had purchased it from somebody else, who might have the same ticket.

Ms Portia Simango, a director at the company, said the company was losing a lot of money due to this fraud. “We do not know the extent of the fraud. This might be just the tip of the iceberg, with many tickets in circulation.” She said so far three incidents had been uncovered and suspects were arrested and convicted. “We are worried that we are only dealing with the small fish, while the big guys who are making a killing out of the sale of these tickets remain undetected. We would like to see the police investigate this matter in depth and arrest the manufacturers of the tickets,” she said. She said they had arrested a man in the same line last year, but after the arrest, everything seemed to have gone back to normal with no more incidents being reported.