ededed

Morning all,

This is some advice I posted on a local forum after a recent trip to Langlaagte to convert to an SA driving licence....sorry for the long post, but I need to vent....

Having spent the morning trying (and failing - again) to convert my UK licence to an SA one, I thought I should just share some tips. This has been my 5th visit to Langlaagte - all have ended in failure so far, but the following is worth noting:

1. You can't convert your UK driving licence until you have an ID book. A residency sticker in your passport is not enough.

2. The only licencing centre in Johannesburg that does this is Langlaagte. Don't waste your time going anywhere else.

3. The staff at langlaagte are rude, unhelpful and lazy. Don't stress about it, just be prepared and accept it.

4. The phone number for Langlaagte is 011 837 5527 - but don't bother calling it, it won't be answered.

5. The office is open from 7.30am until 4pm - but (and this is important) they only process foreign licence conversions on a Monday or Tuesday, and only before 2pm. Don't try and work outside this - you won't win.

6. Make sure you have the following BEFORE you go:
i.4 x passport photos
ii. your SA ID, plus a certified copy
iii. your foreign passport, plus a certified copy (of your photo page AND the PR visa page)
iv. a letter from your embassy confirming the licence is valid (less than 3 months old)
v. your foreign licence
vi. a form (DL1) - can be downloaded, easier to complete first as it's quite long
vii. proof of residential address (eg utility bill)
viii. proof of residency status (residency certificate from home affairs), plus certified copy - issued less than 12 months ago
ix. the fee - although no-one has yet confirmed if there is one, or how much it is. Best to take a couple of hundred rand in small denomination notes just in case

You need to surrender your foreign licence - but that's fine as you can simply claim it as lost with DVLA and get a new one.

You have a year from getting residency to convert, or you have to take a driving test. The fact that it can take a year between getting PR and getting your ID doesn't seem to bother these fine public servants.

Good luck, take a book, prozac and your sense of humour. You will need all 3.

So - having done all this, I go back again this morning, with everything they have asked for, certified copies of everything, and a photo of the inside of my left nut, just in case.

Despite my ID book being 2 months old, and my PR certificate being 4 months old, the fact that Home Affairs approved the PR 18 months ago (but couldn't find it to give it to me until November 2009) means I am no longer eligible for a conversion. I couldn't apply for an ID book till I was issued this certificate, and couldn't apply for a conversion till I had an ID book. All this is apparently my fault.

I give up. The most inept, unhelpful, unfriendly, incompetent, pathetic excuse for a "service" (ha ha) I have ever experienced, in the world. I was treated with absolute disdain - and have been on my previous 5 visits to this centre of ineptitude. Welcome to South Africa, welcome to Johannesburg. Nice to make your foreign visitors feel so welcome.

A world class African city? Don't make me laugh. You are better off getting here and taking your test - a far less painful experience, much quicker in the long run and you won't be sent away on a whim because they changed the rules without telling anyone.

I sat in the station manager's office and called the number for his reception - offering him R1000 if it was answered. He became abusive, insulting and aggressive. Nice to be a customer in South Africa...and I am cross with myself for being surprised that this would be quite so difficult.

...and the call went unanswered, again.

I am posting in case anyone is curious as to how to do this. It appears to be a simple question - with a simple answer. You can't.

Unless anyone knows differently? (and no, I don't want to buy one - but thanks).

Daxk

Kindly post link to photograph of inside of your left nut.

Pablo

Classic.

Poor you, Ed.

ededed

The best I can do. I still have the life force sucked out of me.

But - tomorrow is another day! I'm buying a bike to beat the traffic. That's going to be much easier....right? Anyone...?

Alfresco

Hey Ed, that's another reason why I don't live there anymore.

By comparison to swap your South African license for a UK one do the following:-

• Collect a D1 form from any post office.
• Fill it in (5 mins)
• Post it off Special Delivery with your Passport, a photo, S.A. license/ID book. £50 cheque and a special delivery return envelope.

Wait for +-10 days and receive at your frontdoor your new UK driving license.

Then once you've got a UK license, get your Oz PR visa and exchange your license there by walking into a licensing office with a couple of photos, some cash and your Oz PR visa. Walk out a bit later with your Oz license.

ededed

Thanks Al, that really cheers me up.

I'm not letting this rest. I am writing to the DG of the department of transport. I am 100% convinced he will see the virtue of my complaint and immediately respond with a full and unreserved apology, offer of compensation and my new SA licence, along with a promise to clean up the licence centre's act and fire all the staff who provided such shoddy service to a taxpayer.

I also think Gordon Brown is a brilliant Prime Minister, JZ is a paragon of moral rectitude and my ex-wife is a supermodel.

Nurse...? Nurse.....?

whalewatcher

I had things so easy during my years in SA. Residency came through in a flash, ID book appeared a month later. This was 15 years ago mind. They didn't have computers at Home Affairs then. It was wonderful to hear the clack and ting of typewriters again.

Anyway, in 1996 motor insurance told me to get my UK drivers licence 'endorsed'. The guys at Gallows Hill didn't have a clue what to do with a UK licence, so they made a plan. I came back ten minutes later with a passport type photo which they stapled to my UK pink paper and stamped. Everything was fine as far as they were concerned.

That lasted me until 2005, when, after a minor insurance claim, I was told to get an SA credit card licence. Took a couple of hours at Bamboo Road, collected a week later. They didn't even want my UK one, so I've still got both. My UK licence still has 'VERKEERSAFDELING, STAD KAAPSTAD NOV 29 1996' on it, with two 2009 minor British speeding offences right underneath it.

So I had quite a bit of good luck with this sort of thing, but I do know how teeth-gnashingly frustrating it can get.

ededed

For teeth-gnashingly, read "mowing everyone down with an AK-47 in a rampaging act of barbaric destruction".

I generally don't advocate violence, but will make an exception of biblical proportions where these ****s are concerned.

Thanks all for your stories of how easy it is / was for you. Makes me feel so much better.

Alfresco

Eishhhh!

A good remedy is

Daydreamer123

Ed, your post made me laugh

I don't think this is a new thing, years back when I turned 16 we tried to get an ID book. I was not born in SA and it was quite tricky to get one, you'd have thought I was the first person born outside of SA to turn 16. I now have an ID book and SA passport both stating I was born in SA, and a British passport saying I was born in the UK.

When I moved back to the UK and I needed to get one of those tax number things (can't remember what its called anymore) I had to explain that I was actually born in the UK, I thought I was going to be kicked out of the country for passport fraud. Eventually I just explained its Africa and that seemed to work

Move to Australia - you'll be in and out with a shiny new card in half an hour

ededed

Thanks Al - way ahead of you... last night was spent drinking a fantastic red wine by the pool, while watching Chelsea get beaten. Lovely!


Thanks mate!

A national insurance number? Very handy - the problem here is that you have all these festering departments of incompetence (home affairs, licencing, health care, utilities etc etc) and absolutely no link between them. Having an ID number is much easier than just having a PR certificate - but I still have to fill in a form everytime I want to interact with any state department, regardless of how many times I have been there before.

I can live with the difficulty of filling in forms, queuing and being molested by the fixers by the gates - it's the attitude of public servants, who can't even disguise their contempt for you because you have dragged them away from their latest nose-picking adventures.

I asked yesterday to (and I quote) "speak to someone who gives a shit" and was told "there is no-one here who does".

Zero accountability, bugger all consequences for delivering such abysmal "service" and a feeling that the luncatics have finally taken over the asylum.

At least the sun is shining.

Daydreamer123

Thats the ticket, been in Aus too long now.

What I find amazing is how everyone just accepts the bad service as if its a fact of life. Don't know what to do about it, but I ask friends/family they are very apathetic about it. Maybe if more people made a fuss? But then I think they dont need the extra stress.

But yes, the sun is shining and on the whole people are happy - at least everyone I know

ededed

I chatted about this with Mrs E last night - and we agreed we wouldn't let it lie. I'm writing to the minister with the full story (5 pages so far). It won't help, and I know it won't help - but I need to get it off my chest and feel I have tried to do something "official" - make sense?

Daydreamer123

Good idea, I am sure it wont help but if you feel better thats a win for you and if everyone did it who knows, it might start to work.

whalewatcher

LOL, brilliant! I want this printed on a T-shirt over the SA flag.