Johannesburg - South Africa’s last functioning printing machine for driver’s licences has reportedly broken down again.
In September, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said the Driving Licence Centre Account (DLCA) had produced more than two million driving licence cards to clear a backlog that had formed when the machine broke down for months.
This had caused wait times for a new licence to reach a high of 58 days, but by September, officials in the transport sector had wrestled the wait time back to just 10 days, although more than 1.2 million motorists were still driving with expired licences, Mbalula said.
The latest break down of the machine was confirmed to MyBroadband, by the Eastern Cape’s acting chief director for transport regulations, Xolisa Jakula, who said officials were in desperate attempts to get the machine working again by the end of this week.
He said the machine had been broken for at least two weeks and they were hopeful it would be fixed by the end of the week.
An update on the machine’s condition was expected on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Mbalula announced in September that South Africans can expect new smartcard-like driver’s licences from next year and that the current licence would be decommissioned on April 1, 2024.
The new driving license cards would be valid for 10 years.
“I am pleased to announce that the Cabinet has approved the replacement of the current driving licence card with a new card with more secure design features and will comply with the international driving licence standard.
“The current driving licence card was introduced in 1998 and the production equipment was procured in the same year. The technology has become obsolete,” said Mbalula at the time.
IOL