Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has announced that motorists will now be able to make online payments for all licenses.
Mbalula is confident that digital pay points will reduce queues and corruption in the Driver’s Licence Testing Centres (DLTC).
“The ultimate end goal is to eliminate queues, once the full bouquet of online services has been implemented”, the RTMC stated.
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“South Africans have associated traffic-related services with inefficiencies characterised by lethargic customer service, long queues and corruption”, said Mbalula.
“We have taken bold steps to modernise our systems and ride the digital wave to improve service delivery.
“The era of long queues and service centres that close at 15h30, forcing workers to take time off work in order to access traffic services will soon become a thing of the past,” he added.
Mbalula has assured frustrated motorists that online services ensure that civilians are prioritised.
“These services will give impetus to a new service delivery model that places the citizen at the centre,” said Mbalula.
He also said that implementing these services breaks from the past and heralds a new era characterised by the Khawuleza ethos.
“Vehicle, learner and driver licensing processes have been a pervasive challenge for a long time”, he stated.
Mbalula announced that the driver’s licence card machine had been sent to Germany for repairs earlier in February. The device is back in operation, but there’s a 2.1 million card backlog, further exacerbated by the machine breakdown.
It’s estimated this backlog will only be cleared by September 2022.
“The card production is in full swing and work is under way to clear the backlog. In the two weeks since the production process resumed, the DLCA has produced 128,436 driving licence cards,” Mbalula said.
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