Stop sign: South Africa’s only machine that prints driver’s licence cards had to be sent to Germany to be repaired
South Africa’s sole driver’s licence card printing machine may be back from being repaired in Germany, but it now has to contend with an overwhelming backlog of more than 1.4 million cards as of 31 August last year, according to the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
This is the result of more than a decade of under-investment in the driver’s licence producing system and it will probably take at least another 12 months for authorities to grapple with the backlog issues, according to civil action group Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has been vague in offering a solution to the problem, saying only that a new machine would be introduced “once cabinet approves” it, after which “new machines are going to come”.
“The machine from Germany that produces driver’s licences is old. No other country in the world is still using that machine,” Mbalula conceded in January.
Outa’s chief executive, Wayne Duvenage, said it could take up to a year to get a new machine and system in place.
“Card production machines of this nature are not necessarily standing ready on a rack, ready to be purchased,” he explained.
“When the suppliers get an order, they build the solution with the buyer, which in itself can take three to six months. The machine and the card design, output levels, quality is integrated with the local environment and conditions in mind. This includes the re-programming of all the legacy software. It all requires time.”
Outa has previously suggested that driver’s licences should be valid for 10 years instead of the current five, to ease demand pressure on the machine for new cards.
In a foreword to the 2021-22 annual performance plan of the Driving Licence Card Account — the transport department entity responsible for manufacturing driving licence cards — Mbalula said it was in the final phase of designing a new licence card “that is expected to be introduced in the mid-2021/2022 financial year”.
“The entity also plans to reduce the turnaround time of the production of the driving licence card through atomizing its production process,” he added.
This is not a new promise.
A transport department document dated September 2012 noted that it had, since 2009, wanted to move towards smart card technology, which would allow for “far greater uses than that of the current driver’s licence static card”.
The advantages of smart card technology would include features such as vehicle licence renewals, demerit modules, updates of driver restrictions/behaviour and online verification by law enforcement officials.
One option mooted was a phased takeover of all production functions by the Driving Licence Card Account, but this only occurred after the transport department had fought several court battles to free itself from a longstanding contract with the external service provider, Prodiba, and adopt an in-house system.
The transport department went to court to contest a decision by its former director general, George Mahlalela, to extend Prodiba’s contract by another five years. Mahlalela signed the extension in 2013 without the approval of the then transport minister, Ben Martins. The contract would have cost the country more than R1-billion.
(John McCann/M&G)
While the transport department battled in court to end the contract, which Prodiba had first been awarded in 1997, the infrastructure degenerated further.
In its strategic plan for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20, the Driving Licence Card Account said it had “inherited an ageing ICT infrastructure characterised by outdated technology and end-of-life hardware and software”. It said it had embarked on a plan to “modernise the internal IT environment by introducing new technology, infrastructure, systems and ICT governance structures”.
The strategic plan acknowledges that its current mechanical production system, hardware and software — has negatively affected productivity levels and that the Driving Licence Card Account was “in the process of introducing a new card”.
The Driving Licence Card Account has also suffered a decline in revenue as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, recording a surplus of only R900 000 because fewer people applied for licences. It had a surplus of more than R37-million for the year 2019-20, before the health crisis struck.
Responding in May last year to the department’s strategic plans, annual performance plans and budget, the parliamentary portfolio committee on transport said there had been little progress in improving the Driving Licence Card Account and the plans did not “respond to critical matters such as the replacement of the obsolete technology and infrastructure used for the production and printing of the cards”.
On 16 November last year, the committee was still not satisfied with the department’s handling of introducing smart driver’s licence cards. “The committee remains concerned regarding the age of the current card production machine … [and] was further concerned about how slow progress has been in finalising the new driving licence card design planned for introduction in 2021/22.”
The committee had also said it was worried about the renewal applications because of the Covid-19 lockdown regulations. The department extended the validity period of learner’s and driver’s licence cards, temporary driving permits and professional driving permits that expired between 26 March 2020 and 31 August 2021 to 31 March this year.
“The backlog in renewal applications exacerbated due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, online booking failures in Gauteng and delays in processing the cards also remains a concern as the extended deadline for expired licence applications is drawing near,” the committee noted. The department of transport, including Mbalula did not respond to questions from the Mail & Guardian about the derelict machine.
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