The new driving licence cards are to be rolled out at the end of the month.

This is after the current card printers have been bogged down with technical issues over the past few years, leading to intermittent breakdowns and inevitable backlogs of driver’s license cards.

Chinkunga says they are at the “tail-end” of procuring a new printing machine for the license cards. “We are at the tail end of the procurement process because the team that is busy with that had to travel to France to see the machine themselves, so I wouldn’t want to get into that. But I can tell you now, that before the end of this month, we will be printing driving licenses and we will launch the first 100 per province.”

Meanwhile, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuses Executive Director for Accountability Division, Stephanie Fick, says the delay by the Department of Transport to redesign the driver’s licence card is concerning.

Fick says the department has not been transparent with motorists on the issuing of the new cards. “The driver’s licence issue has been a contentious issue, it’s the issue of how transparent the department has been with motorists on the issue.

“We know the card machine has given everyone headaches, at some point they were behind with printing the cards, so it was good news that they are looking for a new system and extending validity of licence cards but now we are far down the road and we still don’t know where we are.”

--SABC--