DRIVERS LICENCE RENEWAL


It was time for me to renew my driver’s license as required by law.

On the 8th of January 2008, I went to the licensing offices at Waltloo. I arrived at 8am only to find hordes of people milling about and a very long queue.

There was no signage and the staff were surly and unhelpful.

It is now five years on from when we all had to convert our licenses to the credit card format. Millions of rands have been spent to improve the systems. Yet, the same chaos and disorganization continues as it was five years ago. No progress made. To add insult to injury, we still have to pay dearly for this poor service, yet we are treated like charity cases.

I worked out that the actual time needed is as follows:
2 minutes for fingerprints
4 minutes for eye test
4 minutes to pay

That adds up to ten minutes. So in theory, I should have been able to do everything and be out of the testing grounds within fifteen minutes.

I left the testing grounds at 2 pm. It took six hours of my time. In my professional capacity I earn about R300-00 an hour. So this exercise cost me R1 800-00, excluding traveling costs.

When I went to collect my new license five weeks later, it took another hour and a half of my time. This should not have taken more than five minutes.

The Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng Province and all the other people involved with the licensing business (scam) must be very grateful that South Africans are so good natured and long suffering. I was intrigued by the good spirit and friendliness shown by the people waiting so long in the unnecessary queues.

The rude and inefficient staff at Waltloo should be ashamed of themselves.


PETER MILLAR
COUNCILLOR, WARD 41
TSHWANE METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY
012-342-0526
082-574-4103
petermillar@polka.co.za