The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has apparently had enough of the country-wide scourge of motorists not renewing their driver’s licences. Don’t bother trying to use valid excuses like the system being offline to work your way out of this one if you’re one of the offending parties.
At the launch of the newest DLTC (Drivers Licence Testing Centre) at the Midrand Gautrain station, Makhosini Msibi, RTMC CEO said they had already alleviated the 1.5 million driver’s licence card backlog. Those cards had expired during the COVID lockdown months of March 2020 to August 2021.
Don’t bother arguing with facts and logic
RTMC CEO, Msibi says, “We find pride in having dealt with over 1.5m backlog in driving licence card renewals.”
It’s time for motorists to understand that they have no excuses in not renewing their driving licence cards anymore. pic.twitter.com/6QlDJ3bTiW
— Road Traffic Management Corporation (@TrafficRTMC) June 9, 2022
In a tweet that accompanied the news celebrating the backlog removal achievement, the RTMC also said, “it’s time for motorists to understand that they have no excuses in not renewing their driving licence cards anymore.”
Unfortunately for South Africans, “the system is offline” is a phrase we’re all too familiar with. Whether it’s after standing in line at Home Affairs for two hours or waiting to receive their SASSA grants at the Post Office only to be told to come back tomorrow. And even then, there’s no guarantee the problem will be resolved.
Read More: The SA Post Office launches online vehicle licence renewal portal
Luckily for those people, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is working to make the experience less life consuming. New Home Affairs branches at some shopping malls as well as smart self-service kiosks should help South Africans achieve the mundane tasks like reprinting a death certificate less of a chore.
SITA (State IT Agency) will also work with the DHA to improve their network security and stability with three failovers to avoid the copious system outages. It seems like the RTMC could do with some attention from SITA as well. Another licence printing machine would probably help as well. Just a thought.