Municipality implementing changes
IN response to numerous letters to the editor legitimately complaining about bad treatment at the hands of employees and long queues [at the traffic department offices], I released a number of press statements and now would like to take you into my confidence on the same platform.
Technical difficulties aside, I am especially outraged about the rude and unprofessional behaviour pointed out, and had a meeting with the executive director for safety and security, Advocate Keith Meyer, to address this specific point.
I made it clear that even though I am fully aware of the stressful conditions our employees work under, disrespectful conduct will not be tolerated and must be addressed immediately.
Meyer in turn met the head of traffic, Warren Prins, and the managers of the Korsten and Uitenhage traffic and licensing centres so that it can filter through to cashiers and staff at the coalface of service delivery.
I fully agree with the writers that the current situation at both these centres is not what we as the DA coalition government strive for.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to pass the buck, but it is important that residents note that the software and hardware used at these centres are supplied by the Department of Transport.
We are merely an agent delivering on behalf of this national government entity, but we never acceded to a passive role.
We started engaging the department in February last year, because the live-capturing units – the machines used at both these centres – were obsolete and on top of that, only three units were operational.
After numerous meetings with the officials of the Drivers License Card Authority (DLCA), a subsidiary of the Department of Transport, we agreed to install the new live enrolment units at Korsten and Uitenhage.
This made us the first municipality in the country to have these new upgrades at our facilities.
However, when more municipalities were added, the system created more problems than solutions.
We did our own investigation as the municipality and found that the national Department of Transport network had virtually come to a standstill and transactions were taking up to 20 minutes to complete instead of the five minutes stated by the department.
I want to assure all residents of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality that as a caring government we found this unacceptable and intervened as follows:
ý On our request officials of DLCA visited the two centres;
ý Our municipal IT staff interacted with DCLA technicians and proposed certain upgrades;
ý A follow-up meeting with officials from the national Department of Transport, provincial department, DCLA and our municipal officials has been set down for February 1.
This is the only time that the national Department of Transport officials will be available. Meyer has already instructed: ý The development of an online booking system that must go live on March 1;
ý The provincial department of transport be engaged to expedite the commissioning of the Motherwell service centre.
We are awaiting Department of Transport accreditation of this centre.
As soon as the department accredits it, we will then be in a position to operate this centre as our third facility.
Eight new machines will be installed here with 12 new staff members already in training;
ý Two additional centres be identified in the metro to deal with the renewal of driver’s licences only.
Mayor Athol Trollip made an impromptu visit to the Korsten driver’s licence centre in the second week in November to write his motorcycle learner’s licence.
The mayor also sat and waited in the queue to pay and did not insist on preferential treatment.
He did this to measure the level of service normal members of the public experience daily.
I would like to reassure the public that we are concerned about the status quo.
Give us a chance to implement our improvements over the next couple of months.
We are doing everything to expedite the upgrades.