Local up in arms about Bethal Licensing Department

It took Mr Gerhardt Strydom more than a month to register several trailers for a business he manages.

Mr Strydom reached out to the Ridge Times and raised his concerns over the poor service delivery received by the staff at the Bethal Licensing Department.

“You stand in a queue the whole day and by the time you get to the counter the power goes off, or if the power is on, the staff tells you they are offline,” said Mr Strydom.

He is concerned about the “attitude” of the staff towards paying customers.

“I have no problem waiting to be served, but to be sent from person to person just for a document is a problem,” said Mr Strydom.

He explained that he was needing BRNC-documents.

“I sent one of my workers to the Licensing Department to collect these forms. They refused to help her and said I had to go in.

“When I went myself, there was a long queue because they were once again offline. They were all sitting against a wall sleeping. I requested to see the manager.

“Very rudely I was asked why I was not standing in the queue and I had to explain that I was not paying for anything but needing advice and requested again for the manager, but was told she was not there,” said Mr Strydom.

He had asked if Bethal fell under Ermelo and with no response to the question asked, he was told he could see the manager.

“I walked to a woman’s office where I displayed all my documents for her to advise what documents are still needed. She had a look and said I now needed a CK and two affidavits.

“I asked her if we could go through the documents again to make sure. Her response was that she knows how to do her job,” said Mr Strydom.

Mr Strydom went to the police station to get an affidavit and got all his documents together, ready to register the businesses trailers.

“I sent my driver as I had to go for an operation. While I was on sick leave my driver said the licensing department was now requesting the company’s SARS documents.”

He said he could not understand what SARS documents had to do with the registering of the trailers.

“We pay for a service, these people are paid to do a job. Their attitudes are horrible and they think they are doing you this great service.

“You stand in the queue and you are right by the window only to be told they are offline. No courtesy and no decency, absolutely nothing! These people need to up their game,” said Mr Strydom.

He told the Ridge Times that every year when he needs to register vehicles and trailers it is a struggle due to bad service.

“You will have all the right documents yet you have to return day after day.

“When the driver requested the BRNC documents, they had no clue what he was talking about and said they don’t have these documents,” said Mr Strydom.
Ridge Times went to the offices to speak to management but was told by the security guard the manager was not present.

The offices were also closed due to no electricity.

Ridge Times also attempted to phone the offices, but the number shown on Google is not working.

A last attempt was made for comment from the Mpumalanga Provincial Government (MPG).

Mr Mzamani Vuma, senior manager for Transport Administration and Licensing at the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison said: “It is true that the system sometimes is offline.

“Some of the reasons that led to the system being offline is theft of Telkom cables, load-shedding from the municipality or Eskom and system upgrade at a national level,” said Mr Vuma.

He said due to a limited budget, the department is not in a position to install backup generators in all licensing centres in the province.

As for SARS documents he said: “There is no need for a SARS certificate when registering a vehicle. There must have been a misunderstanding between the client and the official concerned.

“A BRNC form or certificate is only applicable to an applicant who intend to register a business and not for a vehicle,” said Mr Vuma.

Mr Vuma did not comment on the personals rudeness towards the client.

• At the time of going to print, the Ridge Times received yet another complaint regarding the poor service at the Bethal Licensing Department.

According to the complainant, she was standing in a queue since 06:00 and by 11.10 was still not assisted due to the electricity being off.
The Ridge Times will report on the matter in the next addition.