Another day in Africa !!!

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Robberies disable Pretoria licensing centres
Industry news | 6 July 2017, 07:37am

Pretoria - Executive mayor mayor Solly Msimanga will address the media on Thursday morning about the the recent robberies at various licensing departments in the city.

Meanwhile, the Centurion licensing department, which was temporarily closed on Wednesday after thieves broke into the centre overnight and stole computers and cameras, was expected to reopen on Thursday.

Metro Police spokesman, Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba, said the theft prompted an immediate shutdown of the licensing centre to allow an investigation to be conducted without hindrances. He anticipated that the Centurion centre would be operational on Thursday.

However, it would have limited services, including learner licence testing, practical driver testing and collection of new licence cards, Mahamba said. Preliminary investigations revealed that computers, eNaTiS screens and camera equipment were stolen.

The burglary brought the number of burgled licensing centres in the city to two in as many months. In May equipment was also stolen at the Waltloo licensing centre, east of Pretoria, leaving it unable to assist motorists in that part of the capital.

On Wednesday we reported that the Centurion centre was swamped with motorists from different parts of the capital because other licensing centres in the city were offline.

Numerous motorists aired their frustration after being turned away from several of the city’s licensing departments, including Waltloo, Akasia and Centurion. In the north, the Akasia licensing department has come under fire from motorists, who said it was unreliable and its system constantly offline.

The Rayton licensing office closed for renovations earlier this year. It was originally expected to reopen after four months, but that hasn’t happened. The only service rendered at Rayton is the collection of driving licence cards, which will be allowed to run to its natural conclusion of exhaustion.

Thousands of motorists said they have had to turn to Centurion as an alternative.

Come visit Verulam a town about 5 minutes from King Shaka International. Besides the main street ending in a river, everything happens here. It is Africa in this town. What u want comes with a price tag... Anything else else us free for u to loot.

Pity you can't find the new licencing office opened with the stolen computers and kit. I hear the very efficient, hardly a wait. Even take credit cards.

The lot of us who live overseas are not immune to how things work back home.

I applied for my passport renewal at the end of October 2016. I have been told that this process can take up to 6 months due to the passports having to be sent to Home Affairs in Pretoria for renewal.

I am still waiting, best I can figure it is now almost 8.5 months later.

Managed to get a hold of the home affairs people who told me that my passport was renewed and sent back to Los Angeles on the 9th March.......When phoning Los Angeles their excuse was....."Sorry, sometimes the diplomatic bag lands up in a different location".....

Funny thing, my South African friends here had EXACTLY the same problem with EXACTLY the same excuse......

Guess the diplomatic bags get sent to the wrong location more often than you would imagine :woohoo: :sick: :dry:

Went to Camperdown on the way to Pietermaritzburg, had a certificate from my optometrist for my eyes and was in and out in 20mins. Picked up licence a few months later. Also got a temporary one there. Please keep the place quiet so it can stay like this.

Scotia trying again today, says it's state of the art facilities

Had one last line to stand in to make payment

Took just over 3 hrs but what a shit hole ( you wonder where the tax money goes)?

The office windows use old newspapers with masking tape

Well at least my last another 5 years is rather optimistic

Cheers

Craig Eudey wrote: Went to Camperdown on the way to Pietermaritzburg, had a certificate from my optometrist for my eyes and was in and out in 20mins. Picked up licence a few months later. Also got a temporary one there. Please keep the place quiet so it can stay like this.

Went to Marian Hill around 10-30am today, the queue was out the door, around the building and by the parking bays. Took your advice, drove up to Camperdown 45min and all sorted. So thanks for that