I booked my learner license test on a Friday, which took about four hours to do even though I was there since 7.30am.
My test was scheduled for 1pm on January 16.
When I arrived on the day to write, they advised us at 1.30pm that they were offline and we had to call or come in to re-book.
I have tried calling at least eight times to no avail.
I find this absolutely insane.
No one can keep taking off from work to do these things and the department just seems to wash their hands of the situation, not to mention how rude each and every staff member is (including the security who seem to have some sort of god complex and shout at people).
I also noted that while the rest of us wait for hours in a queue, certain people get pushed to the front of the queue.
The place is filthy as well.
It is almost impossible to use the bathrooms due to the state of them.
We as citizens of this country and town should not be subjected to such terrible experiences just because it is the norm we have become accustomed to.
Also read: Business holds it breath waiting for clean up of rotten meat
It’s disgusting.
Editor’s note: Comment was requested from the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality and the following response was received from spokesperson Themba Gadebe:
“The municipality’s mission is, among others, to provide sustainable and people-centred service that is of a high quality of which we also subscribe to,” he said.
“Our employees are continually attending customer care training in order to conform to the aspiration of our customers as per the municipality’s objectives.
“An applicant who visits the centre will spend almost 45 minutes to an hour on a busy day and normally it takes about 35 minutes to go through the whole process.
“Our system was offline from January 16 to 18.
“Notices were placed from the main entrance gate.
“It is worth noting that the fixing of our system is the competency of the Department of Transport.
“On the issue of the learner’s license applicant who couldn’t sit for the test due to the system being offline, tests are rescheduled for another date and the applicants are informed accordingly that the exercise will resume as soon as the system is online. In this case, that exercise started on January 19.
“There is a cleaning contract that takes care of the building’s neatness.
“People who happen to fail the eye test are referred to the optometrist in terms of the regulation 102 and when those people return with the eye test certificates they need not follow the queue, they are ushered straight to the front of the queue.
“Generally for a person who doesn’t know the processes, the assumptions would be people are literally pushed to the front of the queue.”
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