Frustrated driving school owners from around Benoni gathered at the Benoni Licensing Department to protest against the online booking system introduced in 2018 by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

The protesters told Benoni City Times that since the introduction of the system, their businesses have suffered financial losses.

“We can’t make bookings and our clients can’t book for themselves either. This system is illegal because the National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996 doesn’t say we have to pre-book for a learner’s or driver’s licence,” said Morumoamosa Marule of the National Driving Schools Association of South Africa.

“Before the system was introduced, we could do walk-ins and online bookings. Now, they are doing away with walk-ins and they are enforcing this system on us,” added Marule.

When the RTMC introduced this system, it aimed to eliminate long queues and corruption from officials at the licensing centres.

“Waiting in long queues will soon be a thing of the past. The online booking system will support learner’s and driver’s licence tests and driver’s licence renewals in under 10 minutes.

“The current process requires applicants to queue for over two hours at a testing station,” the RTMC said at the time.

The driving schools’ owners claim the system is always offline.

“Bookings for Ekurhuleni are open only on Wednesdays and we can only book at 08:00, 13:00 and 16:00. We always face challenges because the system is usually offline.

“This has caused a lot of backlog with the renewal of driver’s licences, PDPs and licence discs. The RTMC and Department of Transport must be fair to citizens. We are asking them to review this thing and scrap it so that we can go to back walk-ins,” Marule said.

Owner of Golden Drive Driving School, Alfred Mokgonanyana, echoed Marule’s sentiments.

Also read: WATCH: Driving schools want online booking system scrapped

“We are working on a loss and a lot of our clients are ready to take their tests. Unfortunately, the system is failing us.

“The system must be scrapped, not fixed. We were not consulted when it was introduced. We are frustrated because when our clients don’t get bookings, it becomes a serious problem for us,” said Mokgonanyana.

Kenneth Mosashwa of Kenny’s Driving School said that the current online system frustrates his clients.

“There was an online system that was working. We want them to bring back that old system and it must work in parallel with walk-ins. Applicants must be given the choice to apply either online or manually.

“I have lots of clients who are ready to test but, unfortunately, we can’t book. I am worried that they might start asking for their money back because we are not providing the service fully,” he said.

City of Ekurhuleni spokesperson, Zweli Dlamini, said the RTMC is responsible for the system and the metro will continue to render the services as mandated.

“The city will continue rendering the services as mandated and hopefully RTMC and the association of Driving Schools will find each other soon and the situation is normalized.”

Simon Zwane, RTMC’s chief communication officer, said anyone experiencing problems with the online booking system should contact their call centre on 0861 400 800 or email onlinesupport@rtmc.co.za, and is assured their technicians are working tirelessly to improve the system’s efficiency.