/ 7 May 2007

Traffic-system technicians to work all night

Technicians were to work through Monday night in a bid to fix the country’s new electronic national traffic information system (eNaTIS), officials said.

National Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi said work on the system took longer than expected, preventing centres from opening throughout the country on Monday. ”The server has been installed. Technicians will work through the night on the communication between the server and the data system.”

On Monday morning, the department said driver’s-licence testing centres across the country would be closed until lunch time as a new server was being installed.

Msibi could not say when work would be completed. He said Transport Minister Jeff Radebe would make an announcement on the matter on Tuesday. ”We urge members of the public to wait for the minister’s announcement before they go to testing centres.”

He said the new server was ordered last week after the department had identified the problem in the new electronic system.

Backlogs, technical glitches and shaky, slow systems have been reported at testing stations around the country since the system was introduced last month.

Msibi said problems were caused by the current server capacity. ”It [the installation] is going to clear up the problems.”

The registration of new vehicles had been a large problem, he said.

Last week, the Cabinet called on the country to be patient while the problems with the system were being ironed out. — Sapa