Fed-up driving schools launch e-mail petition

[Zabzoo]

Good Day

Today we had an article regarding the petition mounted against the drivers licence and learners license booking system a.k.a Call Centres.

Today an article was published in the Pretoria News, and I was hoping to be able to star a thread here for conversations relating to our petition or our website.

will this be allowed?

Regards,

[Zabzoo]

Yesterday Pretoria News published an article about the problems experienced to make a driver and/or learners licence booking in South Africa.

Some of the previous articles suggests that there is a back-log of over 37 000 people; what makes it worse is that it was later discovered that not all the test centers are used to capacity, some are standing empty or are closed.

Today Die Beeld published on page 8 - "Petisie oor rybewys-chaos" which again nails the issue at hand - the Government is facing an imminent disaster surrounding the licencing of drivers while in the same breath they are complaining about the death toll on SA roads, deaths caused by negligent or unlicenced drivers.

The article on the front page of the Pretoria News yesterday mentioned that some people are opting to buy their driving licences at R1500. This is a direct result of people not being able to get a licence and is causing more and more people to drive on SA road who positively have no idea what it means to be a licenced driver.

Please share your comments and fears about this here. It is really important for us to let the Government know - it is time to make a change in South Africa.

Initially we informed President Mbeki of issues experienced and then this week we informed the office the president of our intentions to petition.

TEAM SAIDI (South African Institute of Driving Instructors)

[ld13]

Went through it myself yesterday. Took me 3 hours to just "get an appointment". The quickest that they could help me was: 29November.

[armitage]

wow that's quite fast.
Last year when i had to do my appointment I booked in February for a july appointment.

Just to be safe i went then to the next drivers licence testing centre and booked for another date(september).
I did fail my first test but luckily i had the backup test. In the end I spent close to R3k on tests, lessons, apointments and whatnot.
Poor schmucks who have to get a test these days i pity.

[armitage]

oh and then there's the thing that in some municipalities you have to use the testing centres car nowadays.

Can you imagine how frekking hard that is? You don't know this car from a bark of wood and now u suddenly have to do ure drivers test in it? Shame poor them.

[Syndyre]

oh and then there's the thing that in some municipalities you have to use the testing centres car nowadays.

Can you imagine how frekking hard that is? You don't know this car from a bark of wood and now u suddenly have to do ure drivers test in it? Shame poor them.

Why? That's just crazy.

[ToxicBunny]

They do it because the cars are kitted with cameras etc etc etc to root out corruption.

Its both so the student can see he did everything wrong that he gets marked for, but also to stop the instructors taking bribes.

[Alan]

They do it because the cars are kitted with cameras etc etc etc to root out corruption.

Its both so the student can see he did everything wrong that he gets marked for, but also to stop the instructors taking bribes.

So no more R4.50 cat pie bribes

[ld13]

oh and then there's the thing that in some municipalities you have to use the testing centres car nowadays.

Can you imagine how frekking hard that is? You don't know this car from a bark of wood and now u suddenly have to do ure drivers test in it? Shame poor them.

Thats just crazy! I started with my driving lessions yesterday too. Spent a good hour getting used to the car. How am I supposed to climb into a new car and then they expect me to use that car to pass?
lol

I must pass the 29November test. Because my learners expires in January 2008. Thus not enough time to get a new appointment date

[Syndyre]

Try and book a backup test a few days later, that way if you fail you don't have to go to the back of the queue. That's what I did, luckily because I needed it.

[BradDC]

hmm... I have to book again, though cant find an entire day to sit in queues waiting for them :|

[Zabzoo]

A while back they launched an email booking system, which seemed to allow more people to get bookings, however later one they said that it was only for a month and the stopped the system again - no one would really know why they did it. It just seems that they are ignoring problem - or rather, that is the impression that one would get from a public perspective anyway.

[pcgig]

Dont they have an sms waiting list,so as soon as there is a place they send an sms to the learner driver?

[antowan]

Seems like South Africa is going the route of the Dodo when it comes to efficiency. In other African countries corruption and simple ineptness slows down things conveniently enough to make it easier for folks to get bribes from the public willing to pay to get things done. This is how people end up paying bribes for stuff that should be easy, free and efficient.

[lion_fish]

This is how people end up paying bribes for stuff that should be easy, free and efficient.

FREE is the keyword here.

Because of inefficiency and corruption, we do end up paying for alot of services that in most other countries (1st and 3rd world) would be essentialy free or so near to free its makes no difference.

The 2 biggest corrupt centres in SA that effect the most people are Home Affairs and The Motor Vehicle centers.