Licensing saga still unexplained
Residents have been left in the dark after both the City of Mbombela and the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison failed to explain why licensing offices in the city were closed for a fifth time since July last year.
MBOMBELA – It was confirmed that stakeholders met on Monday to develop contingency plans to circumvent future service disruptions, but the paper has been unable to confirm what these contingency plans are, or why the Riverside satellite office has been closed for an extended period.
Spokesman for the department, Joseph Mabuza said it had been decided that the municipality answers Lowvelder’s questions, since it was running the service.
He said, however, that the MEC, Pat Ngomane had advised the executive mayor, Cllr Sibusiso Mathonsi, to implement a sustainable plan to ensure continuous operation of the Mbombela Driver and Learner Training Centre, and that service delivery is not compromised in future.
“The department will also monitor the implementation of the city’s plan to ensure the optimal utilisation of the centre for the benefit of the community,” he said.
Joseph Ngala, municipal spokesman, said it was regrettable that the offices had to close “compromising (the) municipal objective of rendering sustainable services to the community”.
On Thursday morning another upset member of the public phoned to complain about being expected to pay a penalty on top of his licence-renewal fee, after attempting to complete the paperwork at the Mbombela licensing office on three previous occasions, only to find the doors closed.
“Licensing management has undertaken to address each specific case resulting from the recent office closure, should they come to the fore,” Ngala said. 
He did not respond to specific questions pertaining to who exactly attended the meeting, what the outcome of the meeting was, and which plans were made to avoid the problem in future.
Fact or fiction – eNaTIS system offline?
It is also unclear as to why “eNaTIS system is offline” is always given as the reason for the licensing offices being closed, if this is not always true. Last July the department had, in fact, run out of the paper needed to print licences on.
Four months later the licensing offices were closed due to a financial disagreement over payment procedures between the municipality and the department. This again resulted in the offices running out of paper.
During the months of February and May members of the public were told the computer systems were offline for two days, but the reason for closure was never confirmed by the municipality.
Ngala also failed to respond to questions regarding the satellite office. A switchboard operator at the municipality was unable to confirm whether it was open or not.
