Motorists are set to face driving licence renewal headaches, because the driving licence card machine is broken, posing major problems for motorists.
Since 24 November a breakdown of the machine that produces licence cards occured, described as “ailing card production machine”.
This means no new driving licence cards have been produced for the past three weeks.
Two letters signed by Sandiso Thutshini, acting head of the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) entity, were sent to Driving Licence Test Centre (DLTC) managers to advise them about the card machine breakdown.
This will result in the department of transport having to extend the validity period of driving licences that expired during Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Both the Automobile Association (AA) and Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), believe an extension to the validity of driving licenses will be necessary.
The first letter by Thutshini to DLTC managers, dated 25 November with the subject line “Notice of Card Production Backlog”, 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 License Test Centres (DLTCs) are requested to encourage applicants to apply for a temporary driving license card. We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank the DLTCs for their continued support and understanding during this time.”
The second letter, dated 9 December with the subject line “Update On Card Production Backlog”, stated, “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.”
Meanwhile, there is already a high backlog of driving licence cards due to the breakdown of the ailing production machine.
Transport minister Fikile Mbalula, confirmed in August that, nationally, 42.4% 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.
Sources: TechCentral
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