No water, traffic station shuts down
FOR the past three months, residents of Prakiseer had to travel more than 60km to renew their licences or to do their driver's licence tests due to a lack of water and blocked toilets.
Gilbert Motseo
LIMPOPO – FOR the past three months, residents of Prakiseer had to travel more than 60km to renew their licences or to do their driver’s licence tests.
Since March 15, no services were rendered at the only local traffic station in the Greater Tubatse Municipality due to a lack of water and blocked toilets.
Learners and motorists who needed help with their driver’s licences were turned away and advised to travel to Lydenburg or to Lebowakgomo traffic stations for assistance.
These included Peter Mkhondo, who went to the station to renew his licence on March 26, but was told the station was closed.
“This is an inconvenience and I had to travel to Lydenburg for this. The municipality should have arranged for temporary offices for the staff,” he said.
According to reliable sources, the Limpopo department of transport, safety and liaison closed the centre as they viewed the working conditions as not being up to standard.
“The toilets are dirty and some of us preferred not to use them at all, we often use the toilets at neighbouring offices,” said one of the workers at the station, who wished to remain anonymous.
A public notice found at the station stated that services pertaining to learner’s, driver’s and public driving licences had been suspended until further notice. Another notice stated that the station had been closed due to “certain circumstances”.
This is not the first time the station makes headlines for the wrong reasons. In 2012, staff downed tools in demand of water at the station.
Thabiso Mokoena, the spokesperson for the municipality, said the station was closed due to a lack of ablution facilities, electrical and technical problems, as well as problems with the structure of the building.
“We are currently renovating the station, we will equip the station with its own borehole and all the problems with the roofing will be solved.” Mokoena said the municipality would then await the department’s confirmation on whether the renovated buildings complied to their standards.
