Three-hour prayer hold-up

Residents who went to the Ndlambe traffic department on Monday morning hoping to get their licence needs sorted early, were stunned when staff informed them they would not be serving them for three hours as they were going to pray for a colleague who had passed away. The issue was raised on Talk of the Town’s Facebook group and drew many irate comments.

“What?” said Angi Bezuidenhout. “It’s not like they are going to a funeral and it’s during working hours. Yesterday was Sunday, surely this needs to be sorted out?”

Lynette Solz commented: “What happened to a minute of silence? Not even a church service takes three hours!”

She was echoed by Shellz Dee, who said: “Three-hour prayer during working hours? They should have done that at six in the morning and not affect services and clients.”

Several residents wondered who the office manager was.

Tshangisa Uzulu Memani Mlonyeni said action must be taken against the employees.

“Traffic chief Fred Cannon should be aware of this,” Mark Everton said. “All due respect but three hours. Something fishy here.”

Grahame Martin said: “There is no management at the Ndlambe traffic department. Any person with a management title or responsibility should be fired.”

Louise Lubbe said the traffic department fell under community protection services director Nombulelo Booysen, but that she did not know what was happening. Lubbe said after contacting the municipality, they advised that residents with complaints to liaise directly with Booysen on 046-604-5528 or e-mail their complaint to

nbooysen@ndlambe.gov.za

Lubbe said traffic department office manager Theresa Jacobs was not in the office.

In response to TotT’s queries, municipal spokesperson Cecil Mbolekwa said: “It is customary for municipal staff to pay our respects to the family of deceased staff members who have passed away while still in the employ of the municipality.

“As an organisation, we value the contribution made by our employees towards service delivery and it is imperative that we pay our last respects when the employee has passed on,” he said.

“We apologise for any inconvenience.”