Long-time Germiston resident André Stroiz, was shocked at the treatment he received at the Wadeville Licensing Department, last Tuesday.
“After waiting for four hours in a queue I did not expect to be treated in such a rude and racist manner by an employee of the city council,” he said.
Stroiz was there to renew his driver’s licence.
“When it was, at last, my turn, I was told in a very rude tone to start the eye test.
“The woman employee did not explain how the test was supposed to be done,” he said.
“I stared at the ‘E’ for five seconds not knowing what to do.
“She again shouted at me to do the test. When I told her I did not know how to and that she had not explained it, she again shouted that she had.
“Why would I not do the test if she had, in fact, explained the procedure to me?
“She would not give me a chance to speak.
“At that time I lost my temper and told her she was talking nonsense.
“She then went berserk in her own language, and the only words I could understand were that she is not my ‘domestic’, she is not my ‘garden boy’ and she added something about apartheid being over.
“I apologised for my language, but she kept on ranting.”
Stroiz said he was extremely unhappy about the way he was treated and that the woman then failed him on his eye test.
He added that when he mentioned this to a supervisor, he was informed that it was the system that had failed him not the woman.
“I find this very strange, because after a two-hour wait at the Bedfordview Licensing Department, being dealt with very professionally I might add, I passed the eye test the first time, after the testing process was explained to me,” he said.
Stroiz said that when he left the Wadeville Licensing Department, the woman, who at first refused to give him her name, was still ranting at him at the top of her voice.
“Only after I asked her for her name the third time did she scribble something down on my documentation, and this name proved to not even be hers,” Stroiz said.
“I have been living in Germiston for the past 28 years and have never experienced such blatant racism from any council employee.
“In my opinion, this woman is not fit to work with the public as she is rude and obnoxious.”
The GCN approached the metro for comment on the matter and spokesman Themba Gadebe refuted Stroiz’s allegations.
He said: “The Live Scanning Unit procedure was explained to the applicant by the examiner.
“The applicant then shouted at the examiner while she was explaining the procedure and swore at her.
“The senior examiner then intervened to establish the facts around the incident.
“It was established that the applicant was disgruntled because he had failed the eye test, and the supervisor explained to him that the test results are generated by the Live Scanning Unit and not by the examiner.
“The matter will, however, be investigated further internally, as the metro does not support any untoward behaviour to its customers.
“This is shown by the ‘Batho Pele’ principle.”
