Two new licensing centers officially opened in Gauteng

On Thursday, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said this is part of the work being done to try and rid the province of the massive backlogs of license renewals.

He also said the new centers are the beginning of fixing the system.

"It cannot be that getting a driver's license can be such a nightmare, it's a mess in a country like ours to get a driver's license, you have to pay and do corruption, it's a big problem," said Mbalula. 

He was speaking at one of the centers in Centurion.

The other center is at Waterfall in Midrand. Both centres will be open Monday to Sunday 7 am to 9 pm to allow motorists to renew and get their driver's licenses. 

In August, 1.2 million licenses were not yet renewed. 

Mbalula extended the renewal period until March 2022. 

"We are perfecting our driver's license regime and we are getting somewhere, one of the things coming up is a new license card but that is not a priority, the priority was to ensure we get the service right. The first thing was to push back the backlog and fix the system," said Mbalula.

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