South Africa’s ageing driver’s licence making machine is up and running again after reports indicated it had not been operational for two weeks.

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula confirmed earlier this week that the machine was up and running. According to Mbalula power outages had an effect on its operation.

He said that his department would be running 24-hour shifts to meet the demand and kill the backlog of licences across the country.

The machine has been operational since January 2022 after it had to be sent to Germany for repairs when it broke down in November 2021. The breakdown caused a backlog of driver’s licence card renewals.

The backlogs, already severe as the Covid-19 pandemic affected the licensing centres, forced the transport ministry to extend the validity of licences that expired between March 26, 2020 and August 31, 2021 to March 2022.

Previously, Mbalula said that the Driving License Centre Account had produced two million cards to clear the backlog caused by the machine breakdown.

He also said that the department had reduced the waiting times from 58 working days in April to 10 in July.

On September 2, Mbalula announced that the cabinet had approved a new driver’s licence card that brought South Africa to international standards.

Mbalula said that the old machine would be decommissioned in April 2024, with the pilot phase for the new card running from November 1, 2023 to March 2024.