LOUIS TRICHARDT – Drivers who are trying to comply with the Department of Transport's deadline of February 28 for the conversion of licences to credit card format (CCF), are upset by the treatment and service (or lack thereof) that they experience at the Makhado Municipal offices.

One such example is Mr Peter Evans from Thohoyandou who attempted to convert his driver's licence to a CCF licence on February 19 at the Makhado Municipality. Beforehand he carefully researched the process and visited the Department of Transport's website, which contains information to the effect that drivers can have their eyes tested by a registered optometrist free of charge. He also checked on the requirements for ID photos.

Consequently Mr Evans had his eyes tested by a Thohoyandou optometrist who issued an official South African Optometrists Association (SAOA) test certificate, which stated that it was approved by the Department of Transport. He then went to a photo studio that used a digital camera to make a set of ID photos and made very sure that the pictures were suitable for scanning.

Ready with his eye test certificate and ID photos to save time, he reached the licensing department of the Makhado Municipality. He found four queues there without any indication of the purpose of each queue. It later transpired that queue number one was a queue outside the building meant to join queue number two inside the building for an eye test. Mr Evans, thankful that he was armed with an eye test certificate, then joined queue three to be fingerprinted.

On reaching the front of the queue the traffic officer doing the fingerprinting told him that he had to join the eye test queue first. Evans showed him the eye test certificate and a copy of the website instructions. He was then taken to the Assistant Manager of the Traffic and Licence Department, Mr Martin Luus who instructed the officer to accept the eye test certificate.

Evans went back to queue number three where he sat till 12:45 when everyone was chucked out and told to come back at 14:00. He eventually managed to have his fingerprints taken and the traffic officer pasted his ID pictures onto the image scanning sheet, opened a file for him and directed him to queue four to pay for the licence.

At five to three, five minutes before closing time, it was finally his turn to pay. The cashier told him that she could not process the application since the photos were unsuitable and also that his eye certificate from the SAOA was not acceptable. The lady doing the eye testing was called over and concluded that Evans had to go back to queue one and wait to have his eyes tested.

That would have meant another eight hours' wait and another round trip of 140 kilometres.

"At that point I regrettably lost my temper and shouted at the three licensing officers. I was taken to the real boss, Mr Ndwambi, Manager: Protection Services, who asked me why I couldn't wait in the queue like everyone else and why I paid an optometrist for a test. When I showed him the copy of the regulations from the Transport Department's Website, Mr Ndwambi laughed out loud and found it very amusing that I had waited eight hours for my licence and now had to start all over again," Mr Evans said.

Mr Peter Evans said that Mr Ndwambi refused to call the national Department of Transport and stated that he would only respond to written instruction from them to comply with their published statements.

Following this debacle, Mr Evans contacted Polokwane Municipality and was told that they accept SAOA eye tests.

What Mr Evans and other unfortunate drivers want to know is: Why is the Makhado Municipality not accepting SAOA certificates? Why does a person in a managerial position refuse to abide by an instruction published in the official government website? Why does the cashier only tell you after six hours of queuing that your ID pictures are unsuitable when they could be assessed before being pasted onto the scanning sheet? Why is it up to the cashier to decide on the acceptability of an ID image? Why have only three licensing officers, two cashiers and only one eye testing system been made available? Why is the office closed for one and a quarter hour lunch break when staff could take staggered breaks?

Meanwhile, national media this week made much of the fact that more than 1,3 million drivers still had to apply for their CCF licences. The North West Province has the highest percentage conversions to CCF's (81,76%), while the lowest conversion percentage (74,18%) occurs in the Limpopo.

Paper type format and other licences that were issued in the former Venda and other TBVC countries and Self-Governing territories will continue to be valid until September 1. The reason for this exclusive extension is that these licences are currently not captured on the National Traffic Information System. For all other drivers 28 February is the cut off date.