'I won't be hassled by drunk people,' Mbalula fights back as driving school owners attack licensing centre

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula has lashed out at the shutdown of licensing stations in Gauteng, describing it as anarchy.

On Monday, Mbalula visited the driving licence testing centre (DLTC) in Akasia, Pretoria, which is one of the facilities that have been shut down by driving schools who are against among others the introduction of the online booking system.

Owners of the driving schools tried to storm the Akasia centre where Mbalula was scheduled to speak to reporters on the issue of the closed DLTCs in Gauteng.

“Anarchy is the highest state of disorder. There must be no law, people must not be governed. They must come and break doors and claim that things are not working because it affects their pockets,” Mbalula said.

He said the government wants to make the centres more accessible and those who have concerns have the right to raise them

“We want to make driver's licensing accessible...if they have a concern, they must say so. 

“They cannot say we have a concern, therefore you must scrap the system. No. Who are they? Even those who are protesting outside, I’m willing to talk to them but I can't talk to people who are drunk,” Mbalula said.

He accused the driving school owners of behaving like a mob that was not willing to talk but was only attacking.

“They are not talking they are attacking. I’m willing to talk to someone who is reasonable,” Mbalula said.

All DLTCs in Gauteng have been closed by driving school owners who are protesting over the system which they claim does not allow them to book slots on behalf of their clients.

The National Driving School Association of SA (NDSASA) has organised the shutdown, also complaining that the system which requires one to create a profile is not working.

Mbalula said the MEC of transport in Gauteng, Jacob Mamabolo, was scheduled to meet a delegation of driving schools at 2pm to address their concerns. He said Mamabolo will then issue a directive that all DLTCs be open on Tuesday.

 “They have to be opened. There is a backlog and there is work to be done. This is a service to the people,” he said.

Police had to be called to the scene in Akasia as angry members of NDSASA tried to storm the building during Mbalula's visit.

Khazba Mashego, one of the protesting driving school operators, said: “I cannot say much about what Mbalula said behind closed doors. When he was speaking to me outside, he never called me a drunkard. On the issue of DLTCs opening tomorrow, we will never allow them to reopen until they scrap the system.”

After the media briefing Mbalula listened to the driving school owners outside the building and delegated someone to take their concerns.

The shutdown of DLTCs has left a lot of motorists frustrated as they cannot renew their licences or collect new ones which have been issued.

Last year, the backlog of driver's licenses increased after the machine manufacturing the document failed and had to be fixed. The government issued an extension for those with expired documents to the end of March. The machine, however, has been fixed.

The backlog relating to those who lodged driver's licence renewal applications still stands at more than 500,000.