A Swedish friend of mine, living in Johannesburg, once compared South Africa and Sweden by saying:" In Sweden, everything works and nothing is possible. In South Africa nothing works and everything is possible." And I have always thought that it kind of describes the South African attitude to things: even if it doesn't work we'll make it work!
This morning I went to the South African Revenue Services to present supporting documents for my tax return. I was expecting a Home Affairs experience, but was pleasantly surprised.
There were long queues of people every where and the service was somewhat both manual and automatic. On arrival I received an orange note that said "General" and was asked to wait in a queue that only led to the toilet. We went through to a large hall with rows of benches and were asked to take a seat. A man approached me and exchanged my orange General note with a number. High up on the wall there was an electronic board ticking the numbers and an automated voice calling them out as well. In addition, a lady, standing in front of the rows of benches, simultaneously called out the numbers, which created a kind of echo or stereo effect.
Anyway, not more that 30 minutes later, I was called to Desk 02 to present my supporting tax documents to a somewhat serious looking woman. The whole procedure only took three minutes and now I just have to wait and see. Just like anywhere else.
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