South Africa’s only driver’s licence card machine isn’t broken, it has glitches — Mbalula
The Department of Transport has hit out at the media for reporting that South Africa’s only driving licence card printing machine had broken down again.
According to the department, the machine is fully operational following power outage challenges, routine maintenance, and component replacements.
Minister Fikile Mbalula said the machine is constantly under maintenance and close monitoring, adding that “glitches” will occur.
“We are happy to announce, beyond any doubt, that the driving licence card production machine is operating at full steam,” Mbalula said.
“As will be expected, glitches might be experienced at some point, but the team is keeping a close eye on the smooth operation of the machine.”
The transport department added that the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) is working closely with the machine’s original manufacturer to address and deal with any glitches that may occur.
MyBroadband reported on the machine breaking down again this week when Eastern Cape acting chief director for transport regulations, Xolisa Jakula, said they’d heard it had been non-operational for at least two weeks.
“The machine is reported to have not been working for two weeks now, and there is an indication that processes are underway to ensure that by the end of this week, it is operational,” Jakula told MyBroadband.
MyBroadband had asked the Department of Transport and Road Traffic Management Corporation for comment several days before speaking to Jakula, but both entities failed to respond to our queries.
Curiously, Mbalula also said the machine could print over 300,000 driver’s licence cards in one month, seemingly walking back his previous claims that it could print 400,000 a month.
“As stated before, the machine is able to print over 300,000 licence cards in a month, so there is no backlog, and we are going to keep it that way,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula’s earlier claim that the machine can produce 400,000 cards per month would mean it would run at almost twice the speed planned for the 2023/24 financial year.
The minister said that at a monthly production rate of 400,000 cards, the DLCA could clear the backlog caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the machine’s breakdown in November 2021 by September 2022.
This assumed a production increase of more than one and a half times the rate at the time, which sat at approximately 260,000 cards per month.
MyBroadband calculated that at 260,000 cards per month, it would take at least 11 months to clear the backlog.
The driver’s licence printing machine is the only one in the country, and Mbalula said it is so old that it is the only one still operating anywhere in the world.
Mbalula also implied that his administration inherited the problem, but the Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has said that was a disingenuous claim, as he had been in office since 30 May 2019.
“For the minister to say they are now dealing with the problem in the sixth administration and that they have inherited this problem is not true,” said Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage.
“This administration, with Mbalula in charge, has been in power for nearly three years.”
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