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On Friday 25 May 2018, I took a day's leave to ensure that I renewed my drivers license at the Randburg Licensing Department.
Upon entry of the building at 11h15, the man at the front pointedly ignored me and proceeded to help another man. I chose to ignore this however rude it was.
He then turned to me and said that there was a meeting with the union that afternoon and that they were closing early. There was a chance that the licensing people may not see some of us. As there appeared to be more than enough time, I joined the queue snaking up and down the stairs. More people were admitted all the time.
After eventually making it onto the chairs after a 2.5 hour wait in the corridors, the actual licensing department door was summarily closed in our faces as everyone was packing up.
I was the second person from the door. At no point was any official time cutoff indicated and the guy at the front downstairs continued admitting people all the time right up to this point. (Despite asking twice during the 2.5 hour wait from entirely apathetic employees if there was a cutoff time (so that we didnt waste it in a queue if we definitely were not going to be seen), not one person came back to us in the queue to inform us.
There was a slight verbal altercation when the door was closed by Ms Ponsho Ledxaba (apparently the manager there), as people were incensed about the lack and the quality of the communications - the left hand clearly didnt know what the right hand was doing. People were protesting very loudly about this complete lack of regard. The guy from downstairs came upstairs and Ms Ledxaba's request and couldnt explain to us WHY he had continued letting people in as well as why he had not informed us of the cutoff time correctly. Only then did both he and Ms Ledxaba mention about a number that had to be on the top of the form to see that we would be served? Total lack of efficiency of which we, the paying public, have to bear the brunt.
No signs were in the passageway leading to the offices and no one told us that we would not be seen as time marched on.
Waste of time, waste of effort, complete and utter disdain for the public whom they are supposed to serve. I am utterly disgusted with how I was treated and the total lack of communication and disregard - they saw the queues and did virtually nothing to keep us informed about progress.
(In addition, the building facilities are deplorable, with cracked and missing tiles, etc. From a Health and Safety point of view, this is an accident waiting to happen).
One more thing, please note that there is a tendency to serve particular racial groups over others. I urge you to go incognito and experience this for yourself.
Proposed resolution:
- complete re-training of the staff on customer care
- full disclosure of final cut off times for acceptance to join the queue
- an apology to all those turned away on the date in question