Protesters block entrances to licensing departments in Tshwane

Many angry driving school instructors in parts of Gauteng took to the streets on Friday to demand the scrapping of the online booking system by shutting down operations at some licensing departments in the province.

Outside various licensing departments in Tshwane, driving school instructors blocked entrances.

The National Driving School Association of South Africa (NDSA) members embarked on protests after what they claimed was unsatisfactory feedback from the department of transport to a memorandum they submitted this month about the new online licence test booking system.

At the Centurion licensing department, Moss Letsholo, spokesman for NDSA, said the eNatis online booking was a serious problem for the industry.

The eNatis system was initially implemented in Gauteng as a pilot project.

“Now, it looks like we are stuck with it,” Letsholo said.

He added a pilot project usually had a start date and a completion date to see if it worked or not.

“We are calling for the eNatis system to be scrapped,” he said.

Letsholo said the system was open to corruption and believed appointment slots were being sold.

“I know of people who have been struggling for 10 months to get a date for their learner’s driving test,” Letsholo said.

Andrew Ward from Fourways in Johannesburg brought his Grade 11 son to the Centurion licensing department on Friday to write his learner’s driving test.

“It took us three months to get this booking,” he said.

In Tshwane, at the Watloo licensing station, members of NDSA blocked the entrance to the centre.

A heavy police presence was in the area as some NDSA members chanted while motorists had to make U-turns after not getting access to the centre.

Mark Koekemoer, who has been a driving school instructor since 2000, said they want access to the system to book appointments for their clients.

“The eNatis platform was not designed to handle the Gauteng volumes of applications,” he said.

Koekemoer said they had to sit until the early hours of the morning to try and secure bookings for clients.

“Last week, I spent a total of 18 hours online without success.”

Lewis Lennox, another protesting instructor, said the eNatis system was implemented to reduce corruption but it has, instead, made matters worse.

marizkac@citizen.co.za

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