Dirty offices cleaned
Centurion licensing offices closed due to unsanitary working conditions.
Operations at the notorious Centurion licensing services (CLS) returned to normal on Wednesday after cleaning services maintained a cleaner and healthier environment for staff and residents.
This followed the shambles on Monday when CLS workers arrived at the offices to find it in a disgusting state. Rotten food and refuse littered the offices. The supervisor on duty then refused to let employees start work, as he considered it a health hazard. Fingers were pointed, but no one wanted to take blame.
Employees at CLS went on leave on 24 December. The last time cleaning staff serviced the offices was on 23 December.
According to one Tshwane metro worker, it was the responsibility of the Centurion branch supervisor on duty to ensure one of the general workers employed at CLS cleaned the offices on the last day of work. This was not done, and refuse bins were left overflowing, dust lined the floors, and chips packets and cold drink cans littered the hallways.
DA Ward Councillor Peter Sutton, who was on scene to resolve the issue, said the dire state of the CLS was due to mismanagement.
“What this boils down to is an attitude problem and the actions of an incompetent supervisor. Cashier cubicles were left in a disgusting state, and staff simply refused to clean it themselves. Pieces of pie crust and chips were strewn about in the cubicles, but weren’t cleaned as the cashiers and supervisor on duty claimed it was not their responsibility. The fact that the supervisor did not come into office a few days earlier to ensure that everything was in order, shows his incompetence.”
Irate citizens vented their frustration at security staff, shouting and demanding to be let in. One 83-year-old lady had been queuing to have her licensed renewed since 06:00.
Juan van Aswegen, a Centurion resident who had his new-born baby girl with him, said the situation was unacceptable. “The systems that the licensing services employs has to be redesigned. This does not work. Worst of all, the poor security guards have to hand out forms to people in queues.”
Another irate resident said when people weren’t able to get the expected service, they turned to illegal activities and paid dodgy people to buy their driver’s licenses.
The queue was stretching out of the building and into the parking lot. A man in the line said this morning was the fourth time he had to come and try to renew his license. “Every time I come here, they run out of the necessary papers. Last time they finally gave me one, but I had to stand in the same queue again because they had forgotten to stamp it.”
The licensing offices were eventually cleaned by some of the staff and were opened at 10:20, nearly three-and-a-half hours after they were supposed to. The elderly were let in first, as were the people who wanted to renew their vehicle license discs.
According to DA ward councillor Karen Meyer, it is unacceptable to close public service offices supposed to serve the public. “The DA will now insist on a disciplinary hearing for the supervisor on duty. This is unfortunate, as the Centurion licensing offices’ regular supervisors weren’t on duty, and in December they kept the offices open until 18:00 at night to ensure that everyone was helped over the festive season.”
Councillor Sutton added that a council meeting will be held on 13 January, in order to discuss the issues that ward councillors have to face, including the debacle at CLS.
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Read: Licensing service offices in shambles
