Driving Practicals: 80 candidates to two vehicles

Driving school union members staged a protest at the site of the examination yesterday, May 26, 2015.

The old Douala International Airport premises, where practicals for the issuing of various categories of driving licenses, was scanty yesterday, May 26, 2015.

The hitherto crowd-pulling site harboured just 80 candidates, compared to over 2,500 last session. Two vehicles; one belonging to “Auto-école Alliance” and the other not identified, were used for the practicals.

The President of the National Union of Driving School Proprietors, Hon. Dieudonné Nyoumsi, who led a protesting delegation in black attire, pointed out a handful of irregularities in the practicals.

He alleged that some driving schools listed as being where the candidates trained did not exist; while others did not send in candidates. He revealed that none of the 10 driving schools said to have registered candidates brought school vehicles. Instead, the vehicle of “Auto-école Alliance,” which did not register any candidate for the examination, was used.

The unionists were unanimous that the strike action will go on till their grievances are looked into. The unionists submitted a long list of grievances to the Transport Ministry almost four months ago and were promised a response after three months. But this has not yet been done.

In order to press home their point, they resolved not to register candidates for examinations till further notice. They are also demanding receipts upon paying money during the submission of files, the closure of some examination sub-centres, and the rejection of candidates who do not study in driving schools, among others.