Surprised by quick return of passport

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IT's always good to start with the more positive things, so firstly, the good I have experienced in Port Alfred recently.

My wife and I applied for new passports at the home affairs office in Port Alfred on Monday October 8 and we were told we could expect our new passports in two to four weeks. Having dealt with government departments before, we were expecting four weeks' minimum.

To our immense surprise, we received SMSes on Monday October 15 advising us our passports were ready for collection. We went into the home affairs office the next day and our passports were there and ready for collection.

When one considers that the applications are sent to Pretoria for processing, this is an amazing turnaround time. We would like to give the Home Affairs Department a really big thumbs-up for this level of performance.

Unfortunately there is also the bad that I have experienced. With all the rain around and the really poor visibility, there are still idiots who refuse to switch on their driving lights while using the roads.

Parking lights don't work, people, that's why they are called parking lights. It's not about how far or how well you can see, it's about making yourself visible to all other road users.

Let's make an effort and make our roads a lot safer.