There is a light at the end of the tunnel for driver’s license card holders following the Western Cape Department of Mobility announcement op Friday, 9 May, that the country’s only driver’s license card printing machine has been fixed. This comes only a few days after the Department said it is well aware of growing frustration among motorists following an announcement by the National Department of Transport (DoT) that the card printing machine has been broken since February.
The provincial department said it had op several occasions made proposals for the driving-licence application process to be decentralised, allowing for provinces to have their own card-printing machines. It said such a proposal was subject to a legislative amendment.
Last week, Paarl Post reported that none of the 6 900 driver’s-licence card and Public Driving Permit (PrDPs) applications Drakenstein Municipality received since the start of the year had its expected culmination in a card issued by Pretoria.
The processing of such an application falls with the DoT and is administered through the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) situated in Pretoria.
In a statement released op Thursday (30 April), the municipality said: “We are not sure when the situation will be remedied.”
At the same time, the City of Cape Town also complained that since the start of the year, it had not received a single licence card, either, the applications for which had also been submitted to Pretoria.
According to MyBroadband, the DoT confirmed that the country’s only driver’s licence card printer had been broken since February and may take several more weeks to repair.
DoT spokesperson Collen Msibi said: “The DLCA is liaising with the sole supplier in France to repair equipment that has malfunctioned and resulted in the machine breakdown.
“The department is exploring various interim solutions to sustain the operations of the current machine, given its age.”
Western Cape Mobility spokesperson Muneera Allie this week said the department had weekly engagements with the DoT and DLCA to encourage an urgent resolution of the matter. “At these engagements, the department addressed the matter op behalf of all municipalities in the Western Cape. The feedback received is that the matter is being addressed and is expected to be resolved soon.
“The Western Cape has proposed decentralisation as well as having a card-printing machine, should the DoT decide to purchase more than one card-producing machine. “However, the purchase of the card-producing machine is the responsibility of DoT, and there are many other factors, such as legislative amendments as well as costs to obtain multiple machines, that must be taken into consideration.”
Meanwhile, Drakenstein Municipality has reminded motorists that in terms of the National Road Traffic Act, an expired driver’s-licence card will remain valid for a period of three months from the date of expiry if a renewal was made before the expiry date.
“The condition for this is that the holder of the licence must be in possession of the expired card and proof of payment.
“If the situation is not resolved within the three months an application can be made for a temporary licence, which is valid for six months, or until the new/replacement driving licence card is issued.
“The renewal of a driver’s-licence card after its expiry date will automatically require a temporary licence, which costs R45.
“This does not apply to new drivers, who are issued with a temporary licence op successfully completing their licence test.”
