No relief from load shedding

The naive newcomer’s face turned from optimism to confusion in an instant. He must have thought he’s in with a chance by rocking up at the Randburg licensing department at 8am. It was a wet Monday after all on which many people already on holiday would have opted to rather stay in bed.

“What time do they open?” he ambitiously asked upon arriving underneath the little stoep where a few dozen had already gathered.

“At 6.45,” a man in front of the waiting queue answered. While the perplexed newcomer was holding out for the man to confirm that it was indeed a joke, reality hit home hard.

“Look,” continued the man, pointing at the makeshift sign on the closed door which said: “From 2 December, office will open at 6.45am.”

ALSO READ: Bleak holidays ahead as Eskom output plummets to new lows

The dozen that has been queueing since before 7am could not contain their laughter anymore. We were not chuckling at the newcomer, but rather at the dire situation we found ourselves in. It was more a case of temporary comic relief.

Whether you went on the temporary arrangement of 6.45am or on Google’s opening time of 7.30am, the doors should have been open by now had it not been for load shedding.

According to the security officer who popped out every few minutes to furnish the growing masses with the relevant forms, power went off at 6am and was expect to come back on any time after 8am.

But any immediate hope the crowd had of instant relief once the lights do come back on was dashed by an unexpected speech by an employee working on the rates and taxes side of the building.

“We expected power to be restored not long after 8am, but the system can take a looooong time once power is restored,” she pronounced.

By now, the crowd had grown to more than 50 people, of which half was forced to queue in the rain as the covered stoep was already filled up. Yet entry was refused to a room with more than enough space for everyone with geometrical dimensions tailor-made for orderly queues, to boot.

Yet another announcement followed, this time by the security officer himself. It was to inform us that because of the photocopiers being out of order, everyone must provide their own copies of their ID cards.

ALSO READ: ‘Eskom requires a fixer’: Mantashe denies accusing De Ruyter of trying to overthrow government

I truly felt for the handful of dejected people that had to abort their mission because of such a silly technicality after weathering the storm almost until the very end. In between handing out forms and making announcements, the security officer opened the door for office workers arriving late for work.

When the doors were finally flung open close to 9am, at least two people that had been lurking around the stoep shamelessly jumped the queue ahead of me.

Suddenly security was nowhere to be seen, clearly taking a breather after all the tireless work before the show was up and running.

And inside, the officer remained absent as countless runners were not only allowed to enter the cashier windows ahead of the now seated queue, but were also being served ahead of some of them.

And yet, after finally leaving with my new licence disc after two and a half hours, I considered myself lucky. Imagine load shedding only started after I’ve put in the long hours.

RELATED: ANC55: Load shedding crisis is being attended to ‘urgently’, says Ramaphosa