The National Department of Transport (DoT) confirmed on Friday (9 May) that the country’s only driving license card printing machine has been fixed and operations have resumed.

The machine had reportedly been out of operation since 5 February, which has led to a backlog of 747 748 outstanding cards to be printed.

Before this announcement, not a single drivers licence card had been issued by Pretoria.

The processing of such an application falls with the DoT and it’s done through the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) situated in Pretoria.

This Western Cape Department of Mobility this week said it had on several occasions made proposals for the driving-licence application process to be decentralised to allow for provinces to host card printing machines.

Western Cape Mobility spokesperson Muneera Allie this week said the department had weekly engagements with the DoT and DLCA to encourgae an urgent resolution to the matter.

“At these engagements the department addresses the matter on 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 by them.

“In a statement released on Thursday (30 April) Drakenstein Municipality said: “We are not sure when the situation will be remedied.”

Backlog of thousands

According to the DoT the backlog breakdown per provinces as at 2 May is as follows:

GP: 252 745; KZN: 115 020; WC: 108 402; MP: 66 833; LP: 61 769; EC: 55 393; NW: 39 983; FS: 33 741; NC: 13 862.

The DoT said this means working hours for staff members at the DLCA, which is an entity of the Department, will be extended to ensure the reduction of the backlog.

With the current catch-up plan, updates on the backlog reduction will be provided as and when significant progress is made.

It said, however, the backlog reduction is also dependent on the number of orders being received on a daily basis.