Deputy Minister of Transport, Joyce Bawah-Mogtari, has disclosed on Class FM that she drives without a driver’s licence.
Discussing challenges in acquiring a driver’s licence in the country on the show on Thursday March 24, Mrs Bawah-Mogtari said she had personally gone through difficulties in getting her licence renewed at the authority.
“I went to them [the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, DVLA] to renew my driver’s licence; this was two years ago. They actually gave me this temporary sheet of paper that I think I even lost along the line,” she stated.
“Can you imagine that for a company that made me register online, took photographs, test my eyesight and all of that, [and had been] issuing me with a driver’s licence all those years, I asked someone to just find my records from their system [and] I was shocked when I got a reply back asking for my date of birth. I got another text asking for my full name and, as we speak, they have not traced that driver’s licence, so, this is a personal experience.
“So, what happened to the automation? What happened to the form I filled out, which I expected was going to form part of a database of applicants for driver’s licences at the time? So, you find that even at a personal level, I have also experienced these challenges.
“I have seen adverts in the newspapers announcing that some driver’s licences that we applied for between this time and this time are ready and people should come and collect them. I also recall being told that people should furnish them with their telephone numbers and that text messages will be sent to you automatically for the licences to be picked up, so, why are they not sending out the text messages?”
Asked by Ekow Mensah-Shalders if she was driving without a driver’s license, she replied: “Yes, I have only been lucky that nobody has stopped me and asked me for one…I suspect the MTTU themselves have come to understand why a lot of people do not tender licences when they stop them”.
Source: classfmonline.com
