Cape Town – KwaZulu-Natal driving school operators reportedly caused a traffic jam on the N3 from Durban to Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday, as they peacefully “marched” to the premier’s office Sihle Zikalala in Pietermaritzburg to hand over a memorandum of demands.
According to Times Live, the driving school operators said that the government was not recognising their work.
Among other things, they claimed that government did not allocate relief to the industry which was also hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic
“Like most businesses, we were adversely affected by the pandemic which saw us battling to pay our overheads, which include office space rentals and fleet,” the report quoted deputy chairperson of Ubumbano Driving School Operators Association, Lunga Magudulela as saying.
More than 30 driving school cars, driving at 20km/h participated in the march.
Tempers flared when police tried to stop the KZN driving school motorcade on the N3
?: @sandysndlovu pic.twitter.com/IWnAwCRRVP— Yasantha Naidoo (@yasantha) March 9, 2022
The march came just days after driving school owners in the Gauteng province also staged numerous shutdown demonstrations, as they called on the government to do away with the eNatis online booking system, according to IOL.
The eNatis online booking system, according to Business Tech, is a system that allows people to book for learners license tests, license renewals just to name a few.
It was introduced recently by the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
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KZN driving school owners shared the same sentiments, as the Gauteng driving school owners, saying that the online booking would cause problems for them and people in rural areas, The Witness. reported.
“Most people walk into our offices for assistance. Now imagine people in the rural areas coming in for assistance and we also don’t know how to help them. We also think they’ll be more corruption than there is currently,” said the KwaZulu-Natal Ubumbano Driving School Operators Association spokesperson Mzwandile Zondi as quoted by the report.
The KZN driving school operators have given the premier 14 days to respond.
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Picture: Facebook/ Nkanyiso Dlamini – Mqadi
Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
