The backlog of issuing of driving licence cards has reached ridiculous proportions and AfriForum may have a solution.
You’ve got to give it to South Africans for coming up with clever solutions when all hope fades.
The saying, “‘n boer maak a plan”, comes to mind when communities, businesses or organisations say “enough is enough” and take fixing problems into their own hands.
Think of companies redirecting traffic where traffic lights are not working, businesses repairing potholes and residents cleaning up parks and pavements. Step up AfriForum.
The backlog of issuing of driving licence cards has reached ridiculous proportions, so you’ve got to give it to the civil rights group for thinking out of the box to ease the load.
Or at the very least, offer a potential solution.
ALSO READ: AfriForum challenges transport department with on-the-spot licence card printing demo
This week AfriForum, while heavily criticising delays in government procurement as about 500 000 driving licence cards remain unprinted, went back to basics and set up a table with a portable printer and a laptop in front of the department of transport offices in Pretoria as they printed out sample licence cards while waiting for Transport Minister Barbara Creecy to join.
She didn’t. Her spokesperson Collen Msibi naturally downplayed the crisis, insisting the driving licence card account had made “huge strides in reducing the backlog, having printed 1.3 million licences from 8 May to this week”.
A tender for the supply of new licence card printers has stalled.
Government seems hellbent on putting plaster over the cracks. AfriForum is at least brave enough to suggest a solution.
We need more of this.
ALSO READ: AfriForum questions why no costs disclosed for new Gauteng licence plate system
