‘Request a slot’ to address licence renewal backlog

The Gauteng government has launched a “request a slot” campaign to address the licence renewal backlog.

The Gauteng department of roads and transport launched a #RequestASlotGP campaign to enable licence cardholders to request and get allocated a booking slot to improve customer experience after the 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 to date.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said the reasons that gave rise to the poor affairs of renewals, were issues of capacity challenges, corruption of officials entrusted with the system, where online booking is used who blocked slots to sell 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.

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

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

Gauteng roads and transport MEC Jacob Mamalobo said the newly launched campaign would run concurrently with an already successful smart mobility weekends campaign and vaccination programmes at the taxi ranks.

“A web-based licence renewal booking system has been created where cardholders can, at their convenience, request a slot.

“Previously, a notice on slot availability was sent to those cardholders whose licences were soon to expire without them asking for it. Now the onus is on cardholders to take the initiative and make the request.”

Mamabolo said through the new campaign, the department was aiming to form partnerships with motorists and licence cardholders to create platforms for them to request a slot.

“Applicants will be allocated slots within 30 days, upon receipt of the required, full information by the department.”

He said this information would be used primarily to prioritise those with driving licence cards that had expired during the Covid-19 lockdown period or earlier.

Requests for a slot can be made at the following email addresses:

Email: requestaslot@gauteng.gov.za (link sends e-mail).

Email: requestaslot@rtmc.co.za; alternatively, online bookings can be made on https://online.natis.gov.za.

Mamabolo said an Android-based application was currently under construction and would be available from next week Monday.

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