Licensing Department out of ink

Residents are enraged for being shown away at or having to make return visits to the Roodepoort Licensing Office in Roodepoort CBD because the office did not have ink cartridges.

Complaints streamed in after residents had queued to have vehicles and ownership changes registered and licences renewed only to be shown away once it was their turn – because the printers had no ink. Some have been making return visits since the week before after having heard the same excuse. Gary Berndt was one of the lucky few to have achieved his goal of changing ownership of a vehicle, but only once he had spoken to management.

“At first, they referred me to the Randburg Licensing Office after I had queued for about 30 minutes.

“I refused to leave before speaking to management and was referred to what I presume is the manager’s office.”

Berndt reports that the manager was friendly after hearing his complaint and asked whether he wanted to pay in cash or by debit card. Berndt was in luck when he said that he would pay in cash. After one of the other employees was sent to another room, Berndt got his printed documents.

“I don’t know if I was the last lucky client who was helped, or if someone did me a favour.”

The Star reported earlier that Metro Police Director Gerrie Gernecke had said the ink shortage was due to the City of Johannesburg not renewing their contract with the company that supplied the ink and toner cartridges. This could not be confirmed with Metro Police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar, who argued that the shortage was due to new customers in Roodepoort.

“The Langlaagte Licensing Office is being refurbished, which causes their traffic to come to our licensing offices, depleting the resources faster,” he said. Gernecke told the Star that ink cartridges would be borrowed from the Florida station, in fact the Roodepoort Testing Station, and Minnaar later said that the office was “managing” with the borrowed ink cartridges and was fully functional once again.