Pretoria - The City of Tshwane’s state-of-the-art C De Wet Licensing Service Centre, which was officially opened today, has been hailed for being a walking distance for residents living within the inner-city precinct.
The facility was previously located in the Saambou Building in the Pretoria CBD, but it has since been relocated to 175 E’skia Mphahlele Drive.
The centre was strategically located to provide easy access to people using public transport as it is just a stone’s throw away from Church Street which is used by taxis and buses.
Tshwane mayor Randall Williams, who cut the ribbon to mark the official opening of the facility, said the decision to move the licensing centre from the CBD was informed by both financial and operational imperatives.
He said the Saambou building was leased to the city and it came at a heavy cost, compounded by issues related to the building's occupational health and safety compliance.
“In order to optimise our already stretched public purse the city took a decision to renovate a portion of this municipal-owned building to a state-of-the-art licensing centre,” Williams said.
The previous service centre at the Saambou building had numerous challenges which affected the quality of service delivery at the centre.
It is estimated that the new C De Wet centre will assist close to 350 customers per day, particularly clients that are based in the Inner City and surrounding areas.
The facility would assist with licensing and registration of motor vehicles by the automotive centre.
“The municipality will through this initiative be able to enhance revenue generation,” Williams said.
At least 25 municipal officials who worked at the old building will be deployed at the new C De Wet centre that is expected to assist close to 350 customers per day, particularly clients that are based in the CBD and surrounding areas.
City’s divisional head for licensing, Nelson Thole said the centre has almost 26 cubicles and was capacitated to ensure the turnaround time for assisting clients was less than 30 minutes.
He said the centre won’t accept cash in order to eliminate corruption.
“Due to risk factors we don’t accept cash… we are not going to collect cash but only swipe,” he said.
He added that anyone who would ask for cash from clients won't be representing the city’s interest, but would “only be there to scam the communities”.
Pretoria News