COVID-19 latest: Bus company staff suspended for sale of fake tests
A bus company worker has been suspended for selling fake COVID-19 tests/results travellers at the Johannesburg Park Station.
Bus company staff has been suspended after an investigation by the
Daily Maverick revealed that fake COVID-19 tests are sold to passengers travelling to neighbouring countries from Johannesburg Park Station.
In an interview with
Cape Talk Radio, investigative reporter Patrick Egwu revealed that a friend who works in Zimbabwe had tipped him off about the sale of fake Covid-19 tests for just R300. He decided to go under cover to investigate the claim.
A Daily Maverick investigation can reveal that unscrupulous bus company agents operating out of Park Station in the Johannesburg CBD are selling fake Covid-19 test results to passengers travelling to neighbouring countries.
In a matter of minutes,
Daily Maverick was able to secure two fake Covid-19 test results from two bus companies for a total of R700.
Each test bore the name and logo of a reputable private pathology laboratory, used technical medical jargon to describe the result and appeared to be legitimate.
Park Station is Johannesburg’s central railway station and, according to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), is the second-biggest passenger railway station in Africa. It serves as a “hub for cross-border buses that link South Africa with the SADC region”. Prasa says some 200,000 people move through the station every day.