The Department of Transport’s Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) seems to be struggling to preserve up with the demand for using licence card renewals.
While the motive stays unclear, the manufacturing of using licence playing cards is taking longer than the DLCA-advised 4 to six weeks.
I utilized to renew my licence on 24 May 2024 and used to be advised I would get hold of an SMS inside six weeks informing me that the card used to be equipped for collection.
It has been two months, and I’ve but to obtain the notification about the collection.
The National Administration Traffic Information System (Natis) on line portal says my using licence card is nevertheless in production.
“Your riding licence card is presently in production. Do take a look at once more when it will be geared up for collection,” it reads.
However, it have to be mentioned that the popularity has remained “in production” when you consider that the day following my renewal application.
MyBroadband requested the Department of Transport for remarks on why using licence card renewals are experiencing delays, however it hadn’t answered our questions by way of publication.
I additionally contacted the Natis Online aid channel to request an replace and rationalization for the delays, however its remarks didn’t supply any clarity.
“Kindly notice that your request has been attended. Did you acquire an SMS?” the aid crew said. It has but to grant similarly feedback.
South Africa is presently purchasing a new card printing computer to exchange the one that has suffered more than one breakdowns in latest years.
The breakdowns resulted in substantial using licence card manufacturing backlogs.
However, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has slammed the Department of Transport for now not being obvious about the new machine’s procurement.
After numerous weeks of silence, the civil motion employer is stressful answers.
“We are worried that the secrecy is hiding not easy activities,” stated Outa govt director, Advocate Stefanie Fick.
“Outa has for the previous few years tried to have interaction meaningfully with these transport entities on a variety of issues, however to no avail.”
Fikile Mbalula, former Minister of Transport, for the duration of a go to to the Driving Licence Card Account in January 2022.
Outa needs solutions to the following questions:
Why has the procurement of the new using licence card computer been delayed for greater than a year?
Why has the branch determined now not to lengthen the validity of using licences in spite of the cumbersome system?
Does the card desktop procurement layout depend on conserving the five-year validity duration for the cards?
Why won’t the branch provide an explanation for how it calculates the costs it prices for licences and how these dollars are distributed?
This comes after former transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga stated she anticipated the DLCA to begin printing new playing cards at the give up of April 2024.
However, it overlooked this deadline, and in June, the branch stated it had no longer but awarded the soft to procure the computing device however had shortlisted 5 bidders.
In 2022, Fikile Mbalula, who served as transport minister from May 2019 to March 2023, introduced plans for a new printer, new cards, and a viable validity extension.
He stated he had commissioned the Road Traffic Management Corporation to lookup a plausible validity extension.
However, none of this got here to fruition at some point of his time as minister, and he left the using licence gadget in chaos.
Outa stated Mbalula had left many riding licence card renewal gadget problems unresolved and did little to unravel the chaos in the department.
It firmly believes the five-year validity length for using licence playing cards need to be prolonged to ten years.
The troubles with South Africa’s present day riding licence card printer first arose when it broke down in late 2021 and took almost three months to fix.
During that time, the DLCA constructed up a backlog of 639,000 playing cards as it is the solely using licence card printer in South Africa.
It has confronted subsequent breakdowns and nonetheless seems to be struggling with the demand.