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There was a backlog of 383 000 driving licence playing cards as at December 1 due to a breakdown of the driving licence card-producing machine.
The Division of Transport (DoT) solely expects the machine to be repaired to full performance by the top of the month, which implies this backlog will improve nonetheless additional.
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The DoT has additionally confirmed that the breakdown within the machine occurred on November 7 – 17 days sooner than beforehand reported.
Moneyweb reported on Wednesday that there had been a breakdown within the machine from November 24.
Learn: Extra driving licence complications for motorists
This was primarily based on two letters signed by Sandiso Thutshini, appearing head of the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) entity, that had been despatched to Driving Licence Take a look at Centre (DLTC) managers to advise them in regards to the card machine breakdown.
The primary letter, dated November 25, said that “there’s presently a backlog of driving licence playing cards because of the breakdown of the ailing manufacturing machine” and that the DLCA was “attending to this matter.”
The second letter, dated December 9, added: “The problem with the breakdown within the manufacturing machine continues to be not resolved. The DLCA understands the frustration created by this case and the group is working arduous to resolve this subject.”
The DoT was unable to reply to an inventory of questions in time for its response to be included in Moneyweb’s first article on the machine breakdown.
DoT responds
In a response acquired on Wednesday night time, it mentioned the DLCA had skilled a breakdown of the card-producing machine and that “stakeholders have been knowledgeable accordingly”.
The DoT claimed a media assertion “was additionally disseminated to this impact”.
Moneyweb is unaware of any media assertion that was launched associated to the machine breakdown and has been unable to find any media assertion on the difficulty on the DoT’s web site.
The DoT in its response to Moneyweb added: “The machine breakdown occurred on November 7 2021 and the group is difficult at work to handle the issue.
“The breakdown was hardly as a consequence of lack of upkeep for the reason that final routine upkeep was performed as not too long ago as October 2021.
“The breakdown occurred because of flooding, from an adjoining constructing on the manufacturing facility. This led to {an electrical} surge leading to injury to the machine,” mentioned the DoT.
“The group is doing every part attainable to revive the machine to full performance earlier than December 31 2021.”
The DoT additional famous that:
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The machine was put in “fairly numerous years in the past”;
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It’s the solely machine that produces driving licence playing cards in South Africa;
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It was imported from France; and
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It was procured at a market-related value on the time via an open tender course of.
As to the way it plans to handle the discount within the backlog, the DoT mentioned: “As at December 1, there’s a backlog of 383 000 playing cards and the DLCA has the capability to provide round 300 thousand [300 000] playing cards in a interval of a month.
“This offers the DLCA the consolation that the backlog will probably be cleared as rapidly as attainable as soon as the machine is again in full operation. The DLCA will implement shifts and extra time work to be able to tackle the present backlog being skilled,” it mentioned.
It seems the backlog referred to by the DoT relates solely to the driving licence playing cards that might not be produced due to the machine breakdown; it doesn’t appear to incorporate the backlog within the renewal and issuing of licences attributable to the arduous Covid-19 lockdown on the finish of March 2020.
Lockdown-related backlog
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula confirmed in August that nationally 42.4% or 1.2 million licences had not but been renewed out of a complete of two.8 million licences which have expired since March 26, 2020.
Reacting to the chaos at DLTCs and the lack of motorists to acquire on-line bookings to resume their driving licences,
- Mbalula on the similar time introduced an additional extension to the validity interval of driving licences that expired throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Learn:
When it comes to the extension, all learner’s licences, driving licence playing cards, momentary driving licences {and professional} driving permits that expired throughout the interval that commenced from March 26 2020 as much as and together with August 31 2021 “are deemed to be legitimate and their validity intervals are prolonged for an additional grace interval ending on March 31 2022”.
Mbalula additional introduced a raft of measures to cut back the driving licence renewal backlog, together with opening two DLTCs operated by the Street Visitors Administration Company (RTMC), which had been to function seven days per week from 7am till 9pm and add 35 380 renewal slots per 30 days and improve Gauteng capability for renewal slots by 48%.
‘Flawed and unfair’
The Vehicle Affiliation and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) have been outspoken of their criticism of how the breakdown of the machine has been managed and the lack of awareness supplied to the general public.
The organisations consider an additional extension to the validity of driving licences will probably be vital due to the rise within the backlog and that it’s unsuitable and unfair to count on motorists who’ve utilized in good time to resume their driving licence to must pay for a short lived licence.
The DoT’s particular feedback in regards to the upkeep of the machine are a response to criticism by Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage that the breakdown of the machine highlights the federal government’s mentality about upkeep and contingency plans.
“They’re at all times combating fires and so they don’t preserve correctly proper all the way down to roads and tools,” he mentioned.
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