South Africans can renew driver’s licences in 20 minutes — Mbalula
Transport minister Fikile Mbalula has assured South Africans that the government’s new online licence renewal service will be secure from hacking and fraudsters. It will also drastically reduce the time motorists must spend at testing centres to renew their licences, he promised.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) on Thursday officially launched the online payment facility for renewing driver’s licence cards, motor vehicle licence discs, and registering and changing of vehicle ownership.
Speaking to Talk 702’s Bongani Bingwa on Friday, Mbalula said the system had been tested and had security measures that were “very up to scratch and up to date”.
That was in response to questions over whether the facility would be protected from fraudsters and identity thieves.
“You are linked to [the National Traffic Information System], and it is not possible to break that,” the minister stated.
Mbalula said that should “chance-takers” manage to exploit the system, online customer service agents would be on hand to assist applicants with grievances.
“But we expect the flawless implementation of the online services,” Mbalula said.
The minister also claimed that the system had built-in security features to detect whether a malicious person attempted to break into it.
Fikile Mbalula, Minister of Transport
The RTMC has said the system would help motorists avoid having to stand in long queues to fill out forms, make payments, and collect their cards, as well as reduce the prevalence of corruption during the process.
Mbalula told Talk 702 that motorists with outstanding licence card renewals can expect visits to DLTCs — such as the new Waterfall facility — to now only take 20 minutes.
For driver’s licence card applications, motorists must still go to a DLTC to have their fingerprints captured.
As before, they also have the option to get their eyes tested at the centre or can provide an eye test from a recognised private optometrist.
The minister said that the department was working with the Health Professionals Council (HPC) of South Africa to introduce an online submission of eye tests by optometrists, which would reduce the time spent at the DLTC further.
“They are still looking at it and running pilots,” Mbalula said.
He stated this service would be online in “no time”.
Licence card printing machine never in Germany
South Africa is facing a massive backlog of outstanding driver’s licence card renewals, worsened by the breakdown of the country’s only licence card printing machine in November 2021.
The two-decade-old machine was fixed and printing cards by the end of January, more than two months after a power surge caused it to malfunction.
Mbalula previously said the repair would take long because it had to be shipped to Germany, where it was manufactured.
But the minister has now told Talk 702 the machine “has never left the shores” of South Africa.
Mbalula also said the machine was printing “day and night”, producing 100,000 cards per week.
The department has estimated more than 2 million new cards will be printed by the end of April, resolving the backlog.
Mbalula again reiterated that South Africa would have a new smart driver’s licence card in 2023, which will be printed using other machines.
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