Dept extends grace period, steps to ease license renewals

The Department of Transport has extended the grace period for driving licence renewals until 31 March next year, it said this week.

This includes all learner licences, driving licence cards, temporary driving licence cards and professional driving permits that expired between 26 March 2020 and 31 August 2021.

The department has also introduced several new service centres to cope with the backlog in licence renewals.

“To give motorists a fair opportunity to renew their licences, we are also rolling out several measures to improve efficiencies and resolve challenges,” said minister Fikile Mbalula.

Mbalula blamed the poor affairs of renewals on capacity issues, corruption by officials, people who block-booked online slots by selling 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.

ALSO READ: Dept ready to help matrics with getting proof of identity

“Challenges are still being experienced in the Northern Cape and the city of Tshwane.”

Gauteng accounted for the highest number of licences not yet renewed at 437 819 out of a total of 980 038 expired licences, which expired from 26 March 2020 to date.

Mbalula said this allowed extra time for individuals who were busy 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.”

As part of the interventions to ease renewals, the Road Traffic Management Corporation would now operate two driving licence testing centres at Waterfall Park in Midrand and Eco Park in Centurion.

“These two centres will open on October 1 and will operate seven days a week, from 07:00 to 21:00.”

Mbalula said these centres would add 35 380 renewal slots per month and increase Gauteng capacity for renewal slots by 48%.

“An e-mail service for Gauteng users who had problems with online bookings and renewing their licences has been activated.”

He said a new driving licence testing centre in Tembisa was opened in July.

“This has further augmented capacity in the province, while the RTMC has fitted two buses with state-of-the-art equipment to serve as mobile centres to assist with renewals.”

He said the buses would be deployed in Diepsloot and Alexandra on October 1.

Two self-service kiosks were being prepared for testing and will be ready in October, to assist those who did not have immediate access to a centre.

The department was also introducing online payments as a banking partner had already been appointed.

He said the RTMC was also in discussions with the Health Professions Council of South Africa so that motorists can use private optometrists who would have the authority to upload eye test results directly to the eNatis system.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram