South Africa’s upgraded transport information system was off to a shaky start on Monday, with some testing stations failing to reopen. Authorities in most provinces reported hiccups and constant technical failures.
Vehicle testing stations, vehicle registering authorities and driver’s-licence testing centres were closed last week for the upgrading of the old National Transport Information System (NaTIS) to the new eNaTIS system.
The new service is electronic and means traffic-related transactions may be done through automated teller machines (ATMs) and the internet.
Testing stations in Midrand, Randburg, Sandton, Langlaagte and Pretoria were still closed due to technical glitches.
Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said testing stations were supposed to have been opened again last Friday. He did not know when the stations would reopen.
In Ekurhuleni, testing stations were open but the system kept on shutting down. ”We are doing our best to serve our customers,” said manager of licensing Charles Makhafola.
Mpumalanga transport department spokesperson David Nkambule said traffic officials only started working at about 11am as the server was down in the morning.
KwaZulu-Natal transport department spokesperson Nonkululeko Mbatha said there were difficulties at some testing stations. ”There are some stations where we are experiencing challenges as the systems keep on going down — but officials are going ahead with tests and recording the information manually,” said Mbatha.
Eastern Cape transport department spokesperson Ncedo Kumbaca said the province’s stations had opened on time although they were experiencing technical ”hiccups here and there”.
No problems were reported in the North West, Limpopo and Northern Cape.
”The stations are up and running. After all the hiccups, everything is running smoothly,” said North West transport, roads and community safety spokesperson Mfoloe Matshube.
National Department of Transport spokesperson Ntau Letebele said technicians were working around the clock to solve the problem. ”Our technicians have identified the problem and are working at full steam to solve it. What we have found is that a lot of our users cannot access the system.”
Letebele said there were 1 500 users who were able to access the system across the country.
”Work is carrying on; those 1 500 users have already been able to do 60 000 transactions and register over 4 000 vehicles. We are hopeful that by the end of the day our technicians would have been able to help more users access the system,” said Letebele. — Sapa