Mamabolo: 70% booking slots reserved for license renewals to ease backlog
Gauteng MEC for Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo says the department is dealing with the backlog at the province’s driving licence testing centres.
Mamabolo estimates that there are more than 30 000 licences waiting to be renewed in the province alone.
A grace period was given to motorists whose licences expired during the national lockdown, between May and end of August.
Motorists who fall outside of that period have flocked to testing centres to renew their licences, causing a massive backlog.
Following a meeting with the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and the Driving License Card Account (DLCA) on Wednesday, Mamabolo has vowed to dedicate 70 percent of booking slots and capacity to driving licenses renewals in order to address the backlogs.
“We have acknowledged the difficulty that we have following the Covid-19 lockdown. We have since realised that there’s so many people that are unable to renew their driver's licences because the lockdown has actually meant there’s a backlog that has been accumulating.”
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Mambolo says the backlog is caused by inadequate equipment and corruption among staff at the centres, but vowed to deal with both matters speedily.
“The first big problem that has been identified is the outcry about booking slots in the National Traffic Information System (NaTIS) because in the province we have actually announced that we prefer people to apply online and we have since announced that we will not be allowing walk-ins.”
He has vowed that checks and balances would be put in place.
“We will set up an operation centre that will be run at a provincial level. Its job is to check hourly the availability of slots, how they are being utilised, the performance of officials and to make sure that 70 per cent of DLTC capacity is not swapped and used for items that we do not have challenges in.”
Listen to Mamabolo below:
