Many of our civil servants petty and mean

The word “petty” comes from the French petit, which means small. And many of our so-called civil, so-called servants, are both petty and mean in the way they torture innocent citizens over the tiniest of things.

Drunk on the little bit of power which bureaucracy gives them, they lord it over ordinary people.

They know that they have the ability to make a person’s life an absolute hell if the tiniest bureaucratic box is not ticked.

That is why we have some sympathy for East Rand pensioner Fanie Venter, who has been trying – and failing – to renew his professional driving permit.

Venter is one of those unusual people who either have no fingerprints or their fingerprints cannot be detected on modern scanning equipment.

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He has been pushed from pillar to post by licensing authorities and, despite having obtained clearance from the police – to the effect that he has no criminal record – officials remain unmoved.

Venter is obviously no criminal – he’s just a man who wants to be able to earn a little extra money doing driving jobs in his retirement.

Yet, millions of illegal, untrained drivers clog up our streets, a threat to themselves and the rest of us. Something’s not right.