Disgruntled residents have reached boiling point

The inhabitants of Bela-Bela are up in arms about poor service delivery from the local licensing department. Frustration is the key word in any conversation there.

In one of the letters received by The BEAT a local man reiterated his disgruntlement about the inability of the department to render a basic service. In a detail way he described his
frustration with incompetence, poor service delivery and ill-mannered staff.

The BEAT followed a number of frustrated local resident’s powerlessness on Facebook regarding the licensing department.

This week The BEAT was inundated with correspondence of angry and disgruntled residents.

A number of readers complained that they have been waiting over a year for their licence renewals and the queue’s they had to endure every time they wanted to make an enquiry was a waste of
valuable time. The staff was unwilling to assist and some of them were outright rude.

After an investigation into the allegations were followed up with the local municipality, the spokesperson promised that the problems will be resolved and to counteract the queues they would
implement an enquiries hotline, but to no avail. This promise and service delivery has also fallen by the wayside.

The back log is due to a strike in the offices of the Driving Licensing Card Account department (DCLA) in December 2018. Those issues have been resolved and the outstanding cards have been send to the local authorities.

The spokesperson for the municipality, Kabelo Mosito, said that extra staff would be made available to dispatch these licences and make a huge inroad in the backlog. This however was another
empty promise.

A dejected resident posted on Facebook this week that no town can progress if the basic services cannot be rendered by officials who are paid a handsome salary to render an efficient service. Nobody is expecting bells and whistles…. only effective service delivery.

— The BEAT