The Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) traffic department office which were gutted in a fire in October last year, halting all services, has now been fully refurbished.
The embattled municipality said that the services will resume as soon as the Department of Transport delivers computers. Customers were inconvenienced as some had to travel up to 94km out of town to access services.
“In October 2021, the building caught fire in the early hours and the matter was reported to authorities. This incident led to a situation where services which include bookings of driving and learners licenses, renewal of vehicle licenses and roadworthy tests were halted. Customers were redirected to other municipal offices in Tarkastad, Whittlesea and Molteno,” the municipality said.
The cash strapped municipality also struggled to collect revenue during the period.
EMLM political head for Public Safety Zukiswa Ralane said that the local authority had beefed up security to protect municipal assets and employees. This comes after an intrusion by gunmen that saw an amount of R70 000 being robbed from the same building in June, this year https://www.news24.com/news24/community-newspaper/komani-karoo/enoch-mgijima-local-municipality-offices-robbed-20220618.
“The situation led to a dire loss of revenue for the municipality and insufficient services for customers. We are now waiting for the Department of Transport to send us new computers with the relevant systems and everything will be back to normal,” said Ralane.
Last year a number of municipal buildings caught alight including the historic Komani Town Hall which still lay in ruins.
