RTMC reaches milestone after aggressive drive to deal with backlog

The department together with the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) said they had been engaged in an aggressive drive to deal with the backlog that was induced by the Covid-19 lockdown period.

“We are grateful for the cooperation we are receiving from the people of Gauteng. We are happy to announce in just four weeks, more than 20 000 people have renewed their driver’s licenses,” said MEC for Public Transport and Roads Infrastructure, Jacob Mamabolo.

“The feedback that we are receiving from the public on the Request a Slot Campaign has been positive and we, therefore, urge members of the public not to wait until the eleventh hour but renew their driver’s licenses now,” said Mamabolo.

The Request A Slot campaign was launched to enable licence cardholders to request and get allocated a booking slot to improve customer experience.

This came after the Gauteng province accounted for the highest number of licences not yet renewed at 437 819 out of a total of 980 038 expired licences, which expired during the period extending from March 26, 2020.

Minister Fikile Mbalula had blamed the backlog on capacity challenges, corruption of officials entrusted with the online booking system (who block slots and sell these to those prepared to pay bribes), slow speed and unavailability of the eNatis system, faulty live capture units and delays in validating fingerprints, among others.

He said the Northern Cape and the Tshwane metro were especially affected.

Mbalula said a grace period was granted for driving licence renewals up until March 31, 2022 and a bouquet of interventions were set to ease challenges.

Mbalula said this was to allow extra time for individuals who were still in the process of renewing their driving licence cards.

“The current renewal application process is overloaded and some applicants have struggled to find bookings.

“Applicants are now urged to make bookings and to finalise their license card renewals as soon as possible.”

Mamabolo said through the Request A Slot Campaign members of the public could book an appointment without any hassle or delays, by visiting www.natis.gov.za.

The Request A Slot mobile application is only available on Android, or by emailing the words ‘Request A Slot’ to requestaslot@gauteng.gov.za or requestaslot@rtmc.co.za.