Driver’s licence renewal a sad story for pensioners

Driver’s licence renewal is a sad story for pensioners. My driver’s licence expired shortly after the first lockdown started.

I benefitted from the extensions to the deadline to renew and since the last extension, I have been trying to get an appointment to do my bit as a citizen of this country, but to no avail.

As 31 March, the deadline, loomed ever closer, I decided to use my new status as someone older than 60. People over 60 do not have to make appointments to renew and can just walk in at a testing station.

I went to a Gauteng testing station where I joined the queue of pensioners. I filled out my form and had everything ready. The strict security guard even took my form inside to stick on my photograph and checked that I had everything they needed.

And so, we stood in the hot sun.

A few chairs were available for the oldest people and those who use crutches. While we waited, we saw the queue for people who had made appointments grow ever shorter, but our queue hardly moved.

A woman in our queue was helped because she had started bleeding on her arms, probably the combination of blood-thinning medication and the sun. Nobody begrudged her the opportunity to go in first.

The other queue kept moving at a brisk pace. Eventually there was nobody left in that queue, but when we wanted to move to that side, we were told it is only for people who had appointments.

We were stuck. If you leave to find some shade for a while and sit down, you lose your place in the queue. So, we stood there in the blazing heat and waited. With just five people before me in the queue, I decided to quit. I was unable to stand for a minute more.

ALSO READ: Fikile Mbalula urged to speed up validity period of drivers licences

Standing in a queue like that to fulfil a legal obligation makes you think about how the citizens of this country and specifically its older citizens are treated. I will not presume to say I now know how the people in the Sassa queue feel, but I have even more sympathy for them now.

I also have even more sympathy now for people who have to queue for every ‘service’ the state ‘delivers’. We keep hearing that the public service bill should be cut, but with less people, would we queue for even longer?

Then I remember how many senior managers in the public service earn more than R1,4 million per year: 9 974. They are supposed to ensure that services, such as renewing your driver’s licence, are delivered by people earning much less than they do.

These people are public servants supposed to serve the public, but why did none of us get the idea that we were there to be served? We did feel like someone inside would be doing us a favour to renew our licences and that you still have to pay for that.

I just want to know if anybody has ever seen a minister queueing to renew his or her driver’s licence. Or can Mr Fixit, fix that?

NOW READ: 2.1 million driver’s licence backlog: Legal action looms over Mbalula’s renewal deadline