Improved licencing is a goal for department

Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula said solutions would be implemented nationally to help with driver and vehicle licencing.

He said this during the 2021/22 budget speech for the Department of Transport at the Road Traffic Management Corporation in Midrand, Vorna Valley on 21 May in a virtual debate with other members of the South African Parliament.

Mbalula said the solutions would include implementing longer operating hours at licencing departments, the use of technology to eliminate queues and the introduction of an online interface for optometrist and medical practitioners to upload eye test results on the eNatis system. “This is part of a process to allow motorists to employ the services of an optometrist of their own choice for eye tests,” he added.

Mbalula said an increase is set to be made to the annual budget expenditure at an average annual rate of 8.1 per cent higher than that of the R57.3 billion allocated in 2020/21. He added that that the lion’s share of the department’s expenditure would be directed towards rail infrastructure, maintenance, operations and inventories.

The balance would be reserved for the South African National Roads Agency for the upgrading and maintenance of the national road network, and will go to provinces and municipalities for the construction, operations and maintenance of transport infrastructure and services among other things.

Chris Hunsinger of the Democratic Alliance said the Department of Transport should be evaluated to measure whether or not they have delivered on National Development Plan goals.

Economic Freedom Fighters’ Nontando Nolutshungu asked whether plans were made to ensure people’s safety when using public transport [whether vehicles were roadworthy], and claimed South African public transport was not safe, efficient nor reliable and it was also expensive yet not universally accessible.