The re-opened traffic department in Ottery could soon follow other traffic centres in the city and face huge backlogs as hundreds of learner drivers flock there to get early bookings for tests.

More than 100 people were turned away from the centre, which opened for business on Monday, after hundreds of people arrived as early as 5.30am to book for licence tests.

 
The driving licence and motor vehicle testing centre at the corner of New Ottery and Old Strandfontein roads was officially relaunched by Mayor Helen Zille last Tuesday after being closed for 10 years.

City traffic spokesperson Searle Johannes said the centre had turned away people to avoid chaos as the long queue was becoming unmanageable. The centre was too small to handle lots of people.

When the Cape Argus visited the centre at 11am on Monday almost 300 people were queueing outside, with groups of 10 being let in at a time.

Mark Wade of Muizenberg arrived at the centre at about 7.30am and by 11am over 100 people were still ahead of him in the queue.

"This is so frustrating. I really didn''t expect such a long queue because it''s the first day. I decided to come here because of the huge backlogs at other centres. I was really hoping for an early date for my test."

Sisanda Tisana and her friend Charmaine Khula came from Paarl hoping to be first in the queue. When they arrived at about 10.30am there were about 200 people in front of them.

"We came here because of the backlog in other small towns. We expected to get a date for the driver''s licence test this week but it doesn''t look like we are going to make it to the front judging by the length of the queue," said Tisana.

Damin Smith of Hout Bay and others decided to form their own numbering system after people started jumping the queue.

"The computer system seems to be taking longer than expected. What''s more frustrating is that there''s no communication or a numbering system to manage the queue," said Smith.

Ntomboxolo Makoba was one of the frustrated learner drivers. "Due to the backlog at the other station I thought I would get an early date, but I''m a bit disappointed after one of the officials told us that we can''t all make it today.

"I''ve been here for five hours already and I''m still at the back of the queue. I''ll probably have to come again tomorrow," she said.

Johannes said the centre could only deal with 100 people a day. Staff were also "shocked with the big turnout".

The Joe Gqabi Testing Centre in Philippi and another in Linguletu West, Khayelitsha opened recently. A new centre in Mitchells Plain is set to be completed in a few months.