The City of Johannesburg’s official website claims renewing licences has been made “hassle free” with no more lengthy queues.
Grassroots intelligence sources say people start queuing at the department in Loveday Street at 6.30am for the doors to open at 7.30am. Nothing can induce me to get out of bed at that hour, so I arrive at 7.40am.
7.40am: A 12m queue runs along the pavement, making me wonder if I should pay the queue-for-you entrepreneurs to do this for me.
7.42am: I make it through the door. The man behind the counter doesn’t greet me. He hands me a bar-coded entrance number, and a white form.
7.45am: The guard at the turnstile swipes me in and an LED display tells me renewals will take three minutes. I sit down with 25 other people and wait to be called in the order we went through the turnstile.
7.51 am: My number flashes on the screen and an electronic voice calls my number. The clerk copies my ID and stamps, staples and scans my bar-coded number. I ask where I should go next and she vaguely waves her arm in the direction I came from.
7.54am: I follow the crowd as there are no signs to tell me where to go. I join another queue and wait.
8.18am: My number is called and I am told that I am in the wrong place and should license my car in Roodepoort. The clerk is polite but not interested in the fact that I have sat in queues for half an hour to find out information I could have been given at the front door.
Two weeks later: I get out of bed early to do it all again, this time at the correct licensing department in Roodepoort.
7.30am: By the time I pull into the parking lot, the queue already stretches 30m, and I join the line just as the doors open.
7.32am: The security guard standing outside tells me to queue on the left, with other people who have paperwork to fill in.
7.34am: I stand in the line, trying to fill in the renewal form, as I didn’t receive one in the post. Thankfully, I brought a book along, saving me from having to ask the person in front of me if I can lean on him.
7.36am: I make it inside the door relatively quickly; three lines form. The line I’m in is for people who didn’t receive renewal notices or who are trying to register a car, while the other is for people who did receive renewal notices. That is the line that seems to be moving quickly. People in the third queue wait to pay a licence fee after registering a car.
7.44am: The end is in sight. There are only 14 people between me and the counter. A sign on the glass window, shielding cashiers from impatient motorists, reads: “Sorry we have computer error pls be patient”.
7.53am: A man ahead of me gets into an argument with the clerk because he is at the wrong licensing department. Given my experience a few weeks previously, I empathise.
8.01am: I finally make it to the front of the queue. A clerk greets me and, when she has finished stapling and stamping, gives me the option of queuing in either of the other two lines to pay. I tell her that one queue is stretching out the door. She laughs and hands me a number.
8.42am: I am called to pay my fee, collect my little round disc and exit the building. Given the computer error and the fact that it is the last day of the month, the process moved quite quickly and I don’t see the necessity of paying someone to queue for me.
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