Licencing centre opens at Gautrain’s Midrand station
The Gautrain station in Midrand is the home to a newly constructed Driving License Testing Centre (DTLC).
Gauteng MEC for Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo unveiled the centre at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday.
Mamabolo told journalists the expansion of the new generation centres come as a bid to help slash the backlog in issuing licenses.
This after the country faced piling paperwork in recent months - with motorists rushing to centres to renew their licences before the deadline for renewals lapsed.
The province was among those struggling to keep up with the increased demand as the one-year Covid-19 grace period came to an end.
Joined by Gautrain Management Agency officials, as well as Road Traffic Management Corporation officials, Mamabolo added he hopes the state of the art technology would bring some relief to motorists.
“This is going to help us provide service to the people, that’s what is important. We are trying to solve the problem where our people are frustrated by the few number of DTLCs that are definitely not enough to service the people.
“Today is a very important day for us in the province.”
Similar DTLC centres were also built and launched in Centurion and Waterfall last year.
“This pilot station joins the two that we have already introduced in the province in Centurion and Waterfall, partnering with RTMC which are already doing a very wonderful job,” said Mamabolo.
The new centre also boasts environmentally-friendly features.
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GMA project manager Nyiko Nkuna assured motorists services wouldn’t come to a standstill during load shedding, an issue which remains a sore point for South Africans.
“The facility is completely off the grid because it is powered by solar and independent of Eskom power so whether there’s load shedding or not, the facility continues to operate,” said Nkuna.
He added the system at the new centres would be streamlined, cutting the processing time in half.
“In a traditional DLTC you have to go to two people - you have to go to an examiner and get processed, that’s where they take the eye test and fingerprints and everything, after that you then have to go to another queue to do payment. With our system and our operation, you go to one person who does the processing, you’ll assess your eyes and everything, capture your fingerprints and all the necessary data. They will also collect the payment at that station and you will be able to take off after that,” Nkuna explained.
The province has less than 40 testing centres.
