New office to help with congestion at DRTS

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Tuesday March 9, 2010 00:00

 

The deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Ntabeni Malikongwa said his office has taken heed of the cries by the community and an office at Super Spar Mall, is now being established to avert the situation.  Malikongwa was speaking at a full council meeting in Francistown last week where councillors complained of congestion and corruption at DTRS. He said that the long awaited office would be complete by June as it is in the last stages of completion.

'What is left now are the computers, cables and air conditioners. Once all these things are in place the office will be ready to operate. After that we will be assured that congestion will be a thing of the past,' he said.

Malikongwa added that the office at Super Spar will be the largest in the country with 10 counters. Recruitment of staff will soon be done so that service delivery can begin, Malikongwa explained.

He said that other measures that the ministry is taking to alleviate congestion at DRTS is to engage post offices to help with some services.

'It is even easier now because we are in the same ministry as the post offices. Now it is only Tatitown Post Office offering the services but we will try to get on board Monarch Post Office and Francistown Post Office,' he added.He further told the council that the other aim is to open offices in Tonota and Masunga so they can help.

'That will make things better,' he said. Malikongwa went on to state that even though he could be speaking prematurely, they are also looking at an area around Jubilee Clinic where they could open another big office.

He assured the council that the ministry is aware of the problems at the DRTS office which they are working to address. However, Malikongwa denied the allegations of corruption by DRTS officers. He said while the officers used to be corrupt, it is now members of the public who manufacture documents such as permits, driving licences and so forth.

'People manufacture permits and licences even though most of the time we catch up with them because we have our own ways,' he said.

He said that the department stopped issuing permits in August 2008.

'There is no new issuance of new permits because we could see that things were becoming problematic,' he said. Malikongwa further said permits that were issued after that date are just backlog cases.

He revealed that plans are underway to computerise their documents to curb corruption.