POLOKWANE – Motorists are well aware that they are required to renew their drivers licence every five years. It is a time-consuming process as people have to wait in long lines and often show up to the traffic department as early as 06:00 to be first in line when the department’s doors open at 08:00.
Local resident Deidre Myburgh opted to go at a different time, hoping the lines in the afternoon wouldn’t be as long. She arrived at the department at around 15:00 only to find out the cut-off time for licence renewal had passed.
“No one could tell me what the cut-off time is exactly, only that there is one, and a security guard told me the officers in charge of doing eye tests aren’t available as they are lounging around somewhere,” Myburgh said.
A traffic officer who spoke to Review under anonymity says there is no fixed cut-off time but they often enforce one.
“The payment office closes at 15:00 and the process of assisting people in the line takes a long time. We can’t assist people after that so we enforce a cut-off time in order to assist the people already in line and so people don’t wait around only to find they cannot be assisted. For example, if it is already 12:00 and there is a long line, we don’t allow anyone else to join the line,” the source says.
“We take photos of applicants now so people no longer have to bring their own. That speeds things up. I suggest applicants come early to avoid disappointment,” they continued.
Municipal Spokesperson, Matshidiso Mothapo, says the traffic department’s licensing office is open between 08:00 and 15:00 for all financial transactions.
“There is no policy regarding the exact cut-off time for any of the processes, including licence renewal. It is an operational issue,” he said.
“We process up to 600 applications on a day that is not too busy. As the day wears on and the waiting room becomes cramped, we have to cut people off. If the waiting room continues to fill up at around 14:00, we ask people to come back the next day as it is not likely they will be assisted,” he explained.
Mothapo said the department has a staff shortage problem but promises the municipality will address the issue and apologised for the inconvenience to applicants.
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