License card machine back in full production

The National Department of Transport has updated members of the public that the driving license card production machine is back in full production.

This follows the department’s statement in May this year informing members of the public that the machine was taken out of production for three weeks to replace a broken part identified during routine maintenance.

The department’s spokesperson Collen Msibi said the testing of the machine after the part replacement took another two weeks before it was certified to go back to full production.

“This will see an increase in production from the 60 000 cards produced over the past three weeks during the testing period to about 120 000 cards per week. The machine has printed an average of 2 850 000 cards per annum in the past two financial years. Since its commissioning in 1998, it has printed over 60 million driving license cards.”

He added the backlog is currently at 350 000 cards for the past five weeks.

“Backlogs are dependent on the number of orders received. There is currently a catch-up plan to address the backlog, which will be cleared by the end of August this year.

“The department is currently working on the process to introduce a new driving license card as approved by Cabinet in August 2022. The new card will be launched before the end of the current financial year. It will also bring with it new card production machines to replace the current machine. This signals the new dawn in the card environment.”