The Minister of Works and Transport, Veikko Nekundi, made a surprise visit to the NATIS offices in Windhoek on Friday to assess whether clients were satisfied with the service there and that operations ran smoothly.

Minister Nekundi took a tour of the facility where he engaged with employees and clients.

Some of the clients he spoke to were unhappy with the service at the NATIS branch in the Northern Industrial Area, saying the queues were often too long and they had to wait hours for assistance.

One of the employees also stated that the reason the process takes so long is due to the infrastructure not having the capacity to accommodate the influx of clients.

The minister said they will try to establish another branch in one of the local areas to bring services closer to the people and cater to those who cannot afford transport to the centre.

The Regional Manager at NATIS, Andrew Shafombabi, said that they are trying to introduce an online platform that will make provision for clients to apply and make payments digitally and will only require them to provide a reference number or proof of identity.

However, he added that they still face various challenges, especially procuring hardware that will enable clients to do their tests digitally at the centre.

The minister also engaged with some of the instructors and urged them to establish an organisation whereby they would discuss challenges and solutions that they should address for his office.