Chaos at licensing department as brawl breaks out

A FIGHT broke out at the Port Shepstone licensing department this week, and police were called to restore calm.

This came about as a result of frustrations spilling over due to the long waits in seemingly never-ending queues and the apparent uncaring attitude of one staff member.

One Margate couple said they arrived at the department last Tuesday at 11am, stood in a very long queue, left and came back at 1.30pm, only to leave three hours later.

The couple said others told them that they had been waiting for nearly four hours.

In a letter written to the Herald, one writer suggested that the licensing department needed better planning and organisation.

The reader explained that a certain woman moved an unoccupied bench, as there was no more room on the wooden benches.

However, an official did not take kindly to this, saying that benches were not to be moved.

The altercation further slowed the snail-pace progress being made, so they left.

It took a further two attempts to renew a licence which was about to expire.

“The queue was out of the door and no effort was made to move the elderly or those with small children to the front,” said the writer.

The writer felt that if numbered cards were issued on arrival, as happens at Home Affairs, this would stop queue ‘jumpers’ and facilitate the queue for eye tests and for processing.