Fury over licence mayhem

Tempers reached boiling point at licensing departments around Gauteng this week as frustrated motorists battled crashing computer systems and the alleged “hijacking” of driver’s license test slots by driving schools in cahoots with officials.

Many angry people queued for hours in vain, watching others jump the queue or being told their test appointments were not valid or not available.

The licensing system is struggling to get back into gear after the Covid-19 lockdown which saw many licenses expire.

Although a grace period was granted, it has since expired and the pressure has intensified to get drivers and vehicles legally compliant again.

A source told The Citizen the availability for the online slots was being probed after driving schools grabbed most of the spots and left little to no slots for the public, causing fury and even longer queues at the centres.

Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) spokesperson Simon Zwane they were dealing with the problem of driving schools colluding with officials.

“We are aware of members promising the public slots,” Zwane said.

On Thursday, a reporter and photographer from The Citizen visited the Sandton Licensing Centre in Marlboro, with long queues outside as motorists waited to be assisted.

As we watched, we saw an official call together already frustrated motorists to tell them the system was offline.

They were given two options: get a formed signed and return the following day, or wait. Some people in the queue said they took a day’s leave from work to sort out their documents.

Now, they would have to take another day’s leave to queue again.

Ricardo Vermaak from Walkerville was collecting his driver’s license, which he could renew during the lockdown.

“I struggled long to get an appointment.” Besides having to reapply for an appointment, he had to wait three weeks for a second appointment after his paperwork was incorrectly filled in the first time.

“The actual appointment on the day went surprisingly fast. The only real headache is to get an appointment.”

Every day from 8am he had visited the eNatis website hourly to try book an appointment. Debbie Freeman was one of the lucky few who walked away satisfied after she collected her license card.

However, she had also applied for renewal during lockdown and all she had to do was collect the card.

A despondent Thabo Kgofelo from Alexandra said: “I tested today and came here to do my payment, but I couldn’t get it done. I have been waiting here since 10 am.

“Now they are cutting the line and I need to go back home and come back tomorrow.”

Robert Chandler, national director at the Southern African Institute of Driving Instructors, said he could confirm some driving schools were linked to taking up batches of appointments.

“There are rumours that there are driving instructors making use of multiple devices to book appointments for their clients to secure their driver’s license.” Chandler, however, said he believes the problem lay with the system.

“The system cannot handle the volumes of applicants and is also not easy to use or navigate.”

He said in the past, Driving Licensing Testing Centre managers were allowed to allocate slots. “The authority to do so was take away recently,” he said.

Zwane said the lockdown had also impacted the availability of the online appointment slots due to various factors, including intermittent closures due to the coronavirus pandemic and the centres not running at full capacity.

“We realised the slots were being taken up quickly and there was no fair access to make bookings. To make it fair, slots have now been reopened randomly. Extra slots have also been made available.”

Zwane added that various municipalities were putting in extra effort by making more equipment and technology available in an effort to deal with the backlog.

– marizkac@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.