Licensing Department boo-boo costs resident thousands

LOCALS who are working on sending or receiving documents from the AbaQulusi Licensing Department have to make sure that they do their own follow ups, local resident Igna Van der Merwe learned this the hard way.
According to Mr Van der Merwe, he had his VW Beetle written off in 2012 and went to the licensing department for applications to have it scrapped.
“Upon my arrival there, I was told that the old green-carton logbook was not valid anymore and that I had to apply for a new one,” he said.
After obtaining his new logbook, Mr Van der Merwe was told that he would be notified of when he could go and collect the scrapping certificate.
He never heard from them again.
“If the vehicle had not been scrapped then I expected to receive an sms saying that I should go and renew the car’s license but this did not happen since 2012,” Mr Van der Merwe explained.
In 2013, he bought a motorcycle and had it licensed but still wasn’t told anything about whether scrapping for his Beetle had been approved nor whether he owed any money.
It was only in January, this year when he went to renew the license for his motorcycle that he was informed that he needed to pay R2557.10, which were outstanding licensing fees.
Mr Van der Merwe was very upset about this, as they were the ones who had told her that he would be informed when to collect the scrapping certificate.
“The lady I spoke to merely shrugged her shoulders, wrote down a number on a piece of paper me and told her that he could call management if I wanted to,” said an angry Mr Van der Merwe.
This angry resident said that he was not prepared to pay the amount as he feels that it is due to negligence at the traffic department and not his fault.
The AbaQulusi Licensing Department was contacted regarding the matter but to no avail.