Tracy Vieira from Florida, writes:
On 5 December, I once again had the opportunity to deal with the Florida Licensing Department. Each time has been a horrendous experience, but today was just the cherry on the cake. I have never complained because it is not in my nature and I just feel we have so much going on that another complaint is worthless.
My daughter was to do her driver’s licence there at 8am and when we arrived, we were told to go sit in the cashier offices and wait to be called. I sat there in awe of the vast amounts of money changing hands so openly. Hordes of people, who all seemed to know each other, were swapping the money between them. One could not tell who was employed and who was an outsider, but they were all familiar with each other.
At 8.15am, a woman came out and started to speak at us in her language. I heard the word “eight”. I greeted her, and very nicely said that my daughter’s appointment was at 8am (by that time it was already 8.20am). She looked at me and, again in her language, spoke to me. I did not understand and I repeated what I had said, she started to laugh at me, mumbled something, and turned around and walked away.
Eventually, my daughter’s name was called by what I eventually could see was a gentleman. He came out wearing a full-length rain coat covering his head completely. His eyes were not visible. She was to finally do the dreaded licence. She had taken double shifts at work to pay for lessons and use of the driving school car. He stood in front of her and asked her “are you happy? To which she replied, “yes, I am”, he said “I am not happy to work in this rain”. She got into the car and did all but her alley docking parking correctly (all recorded on his sheet, which we have), for which she is entitled to go a second time repeating. She was stopped and told she had failed. It took him seven minutes and 44 seconds, as recorded on his own sheet. We all have to work in the rain, we all have to do what we don’t enjoy doing. Next time, think about what went into getting to that point when a child is there for his or her licence the first time – the amount of money that was spent on the lessons, booking and use of the driving school car.
Florida Licensing Department is known for their corruption. When will this branch finally be sorted out? We read about it in the papers each week and it just keeps being swept under the carpet.
When we left, we were accosted, and I do not use that word lightly, by a bunch of men who offered to let her pass for money!
Is this just another time South Africans must lose their hard-earned money because of corruption?
