Ceremonial opening cancelled by mayor on last minute

The ceremonial opening of the new satellite licensing office was supposed to open its doors last week, but due to the state of the area the mayor refused that the opening continued.

The official opening was meant to take place on Wednesday, July 6 in the morning, the Executive Mayor Cllr Lindiwe Nsthalintshali, municipal manager Mr Theo van Vuuren, a ward councillor from the Democratic Alliance, various other members from the council and members from the public arrived for the opening.

When the mayor saw the state of the new office, which was unpaved and water running from a blocked drain, she immediately decided that the opening was cancelled.
As luck would have it the computer system was also down on the day.

“The ceremonial opening which after consideration of number of problems was cancelled,” said van Vuuren.

These problems mainly relate to an overflowing sewer which was cleared but repeatedly over flown again.

“This is not acceptable and has been corrected since then. In addition the state of the signage and pathways also raised a concern and should have been corrected prior to the date, but wasn’t,” continued Van Vuuren.

“Therefore strict directives to correct the situation and complete the outstanding work were issued and we should soon see a facility more conducive to receiving our public.”

The new satellite licensing office by the Fire Station in Beatty Street.

Finally on the day of the ceremonial opening the link to the Natis system went down. This link is managed by Natis and they dispatched technicians to restore it.

“This was done but bad luck struck again on Friday when a vehicle bumped into the box housing some of the transmitting equipment, resulting in the link to be down over the weekend. This is being corrected,” continued Van Vuuren.

“We are committed to improve on service delivery and apologise for the above delays. We trust that this satellite centre will soon provide a much improved customer experience to our communities,” said Van Vuuren.

The new satellite licensing office is situated at the e Malalhleni Fire Station on Beatty Avenue.

• This office will be operated as a “fast lane” for the renewal of motor vehicle licenses only. No registrations, deregistration, duplicate documents or drivers license renewals will be done at the satellite office.
• The office will operate during the following hours: Monday to Thursday from 07:30 to 15:00, Fridays from 07:30 to 11:30.
The day prior to Easter, Christmas and New Year 07:30 to 09:45. The office will be closed on weekends and public holidays.
• The documents needed per transaction are as follows: Completed ALV Form (owner of the vehicle), certified copy of the ID of the owner and proof of address (not older than three months).
• Clients need to park in front of the fire station and need to use the gate provided.
• Method of payment will be the following: cash, speed point (card) payments and no cheques will be accepted.

READ ALSO:
New mayor inaugurated
Mayor and mayoral committee suspended