Home affairs to help print driving licences to clear backlog
The transport department's printing machine, which is more than 25 years old, has repeatedly broken down, resulting in huge backlogs.
In February, the machine was out of operation, which resulted in a backlog of outstanding cards to be printed. According to the department, on July 5 the backlog stood at 602,831 cards.
Gauteng was leading with 192,856, followed by the Western Cape with 86,862, and KwaZulu-Natal with 85,313. However, between May 8 and July 7, the department managed to process 515,758 cards.
'If you have a driver's licence that expires now, you have six months in which to get your permanent licence,' Creecy said. 'There would be a lot of people in the queue whose six months is up, so we have said they cannot be penalised because this is not of their making. So people must keep their receipts of when they applied, then they can't be fined.
'Also, they do not have to apply again. A lot of people have temporary licences, but now those licences are expiring again. But they don't have to apply again because that would be unfair. So we have waived that provision.'
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