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Licence backlog causes chaos

Municipality says people must be patient.

October 1, 2015

Levhuwani Matumba 2 minutes read

Most of these people said they waited for seven hours to find out whether their driver’s licences were ready for collection.

SECUNDA – Govan Mbeki Municipality residents are complaining about the severe delays in the issuing of driver’s licences at the Secunda Licence Department.

One elderly man said he arrived at the licence department at 8am on Monday, 28 September and he had to wait until 2.30pm to be helped.

“When I arrived, they took my proof of payment and said I had to wait.

“They never returned to tell me whether my licence was available for collection or not,” said the man who was only informed that his licence was not available at 2.45pm.

Some people said they were also hungry and were afraid to go to the shops to get some food because their names might be called while they were away.

People blamed the licence department staff for poor planning in dealing with the backlog.

“When one arrives here, it is difficult to even reach the information counter and you have to shove your way to gain entry,” said a woman who was visiting the licence department for the fifth time to get her licence.

One young man who did not want his name to be published because of fear of victimisation, said he applied for the renewal of his licence and the temporary licence, six months ago, and his temporary licence expired before he could get his licence.

“My job requires me to have a driver’s licence and now I cannot perform my normal duties of driving the company car, because my temporary licence also expired.”

Some people said the municipality should have a call center number for licence inquiries or send short messages to their clients to inform them that their licences are ready.

Govan Mbeki Municipality’s spokeman, Mr Bheki Kubheka, said the municipality released a statement on 25 August about the delay of issuing licenses and apologised for the delay.

“On 11 September we also released a statement confirming the availability of the licenses and pleaded with the community to be patient considering the backlog and the number of licenses that were to be distributed.”