Ballito licensing office nightmare continues as some motorists return for a ninth time

Motorists queueing at the Ballito licensing offices to renew car licence discs have shared their frustrations over poor service, with some forced to return to the offices as many as nine times.

Visiting the licensing offices last Thursday, the Courier found only one employee serving the queue, while another had been booked off sick.

Many annoyed motorists said they had attempted on several occasions to renew their discs without success, with a few incurring fines when pulled over at roadblocks during the festive period for expired licenses.

KwaDukuza municipal spokesperson, Sipho Mkhize, said the offices were administered by Department of Transport (DoT) officials who are responsible for supplying the human resources for the operation.

“We continue to engage the DoT to increase capacity in this office,” he said.

“As it stands, the municipality had budgeted R1-million for the renovation of the Salt Rock municipal offices, but this was then prioritised for disaster responses in the past years for Covid-19 and the April floods.”

The Salt Rock licensing offices were closed by the provincial DoT in November 2021 owing to non-compliance of operating conditions. It had declined into a structurally defunct building which prompted the municipality to renovate Nokukhanya Luthuli House in Ballito, which now serves as the new licensing office, dealing only with licence disc renewals.

At the front of the queue last Thursday morning were Julie Tully, Jackie de Klerk and Robin Wright, who had respectively returned for a fourth, third and fifth time.

The trio had been in the queue from 6am and said every other time they had visited, they were forced to return on another day owing to loadshedding seeing the offices shut for the day.

Tully, a local school teacher, said with schools reopening soon she was worried she would not be able to renew her licence in time, while De Klerk was of the opinion that the licensing offices needed to install a generator to at least attend to the people during loadshedding.

De Klerk said when loadshedding struck, the offices closed for the day without reopening after loadshedding ended.

“At times, the staff at this satellite office do inform the municipality that following loadshedding the system at the office does take some time to reboot. This requires contact follow-ups with DoT. At times, the system is only restored after working hours, which run from 8am to 1.30pm during weekdays,” Mkhize said.

Ballito ward councillor Tammy Colley of the Democratic Alliance said loadshedding had exacerbated the problem of issuing vehicle licenses.

“We have made various suggestions to improve service delivery and were told the department is now investigating an inverter system to ensure operations continue. We have also suggested extended hours and additional staff to be made available.”

“By the time loadshedding kicks in in the mornings, only about two or three people have been attended to,” said De Klerk.

Meanwhile, Mkhize urged motorists to use the KwaDukuza licensing offices which he said were better equipped to handle larger volumes of customers.

DoT had not responded to a request for comment at the time of going to print.

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