South Africa Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on Thursday announced temporal solution to securing a drivers licence as the only machine used to make them was spoilt and currently in Germany for repair.
Mbalula announced an interim solution that would be in force until the end of March, as well as new types of driving licences to be approved at the first Cabinet meeting of the year.
According to media reports, the machine was the last of the printers purchased by South Africa in the 1990s to be in operation. In South Africa, driving licences have to be renewed every five years.
However. Automobile Association (AA) and Organization Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), on Tuesday indicated they believe a further extension to the validity of driving licences would be necessary.
The first letter by Thutshini to DLTC managers was dated Nov. 25 with the subject line “Notice of Card Production Backlog.’’
The letter read, “the DLCA hereby informs its stakeholders that there is currently a backlog of driving licence cards due to the breakdown of the ailing production machine. The DLCA is currently attending to this matter.
“In the meantime, the Driving Licence Test Centres (DLTCs) are requested to encourage applicants to apply for a temporary driving licence card.
“We apologize for the inconvenience caused and thank the DLTCs for their continued support and understanding during this time.”
The second letter was dated Dec. 9 with the subject line “Update On Card Production Backlog.’’
It read, “on 24 November 2021, the DLCA reported a card production backlog due to the breakdown of the ailing card production machine.
“The challenge with the breakdown in the production machine is still not resolved. The DLCA understands the frustration created by this situation and the team is working hard to resolve this issue.”
The machine breakdown would worsen the already high backlog in the renewal and issuing of licences following the hard COVID-19 lockdown at the end of March 2020.
Mbalula confirmed in August that, nationally, 42.4 per cent or 1.2 million licences had not been renewed out of a total of 2.8 million licences that have expired since 26 March 2020.
In August, he also announced a further extension to the validity period of driving licences that expired during the COVID-19 lockdowns to the end of March 2022. (dpa/NAN)
