Civil service in shambles

I RECENTLY had the experience of renewing my driver’s licence once again. I had done this five years ago at the Uitenhage Licensing Department and was impressed by the efficiency. What a shock it was to see how slack and unprofessional this department had become.

There were two people manning the eye test/fingerprint cubicles and one teller collecting the fees. I was number 40 in line, and was stunned when at 11.30am one of the civil servants decided she had had enough for the day, and promptly left.

It eventually took four hours for me to reach the stage where I was able to finish my business. This is unacceptable by any standards.

If one considers the number of people in the queue on just that one day, I wonder how many hours are lost to commerce. And if this is the usual practice at all of these centres five days a week, how many hours are being lost daily?

Until government starts employing and training their staff, starting in every department, to a level of expertise that is acceptable by world standards, and only when all government departments are running at the same rate of efficiency that we expect from private business, will we be able to say that we have moved forward.