KZN drivers, some whom have been waiting for their new drivers licences since July, can look forward to collecting their cards — maybe.
Wheels yesterday visited the very quiet licence and testing centre at Mkondeni where two drivers who had ordered their cards in August walked in, collected their cards and walked out again in a matter of minutes.
One pensioner, local author Henry Spencer, however said he is still waiting for “that rectangular piece of plastic that allows me to turn that round thing” after applying for it on July 24 last year.
He drove to the centre a couple of times, but has since tried to call the number listed on his expired temporary licence. “We have called seven times, and never any answer,” he said.
Cause of the delays
The long wait for licences across South Africa started in August last year, when a strike by 15 key personnel at the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) quickly resulted in a backlog of hundreds of thousands of licences that were not printed or dispatched.
The DLCA falls under the department of Transport and generates its revenue from the sale of drivers’ licences, with the goal to produce and deliver a licence within 17 working days.
The entity produces about 450 000 licence cards a month. By December last year, the strike had resulted in a backlog of at least 90 000 licences, which Transport said would be issued before the end of December.
Yesterday, the department confirmed this happened and informed Wheels the 15 key staff had returned to work, but their dispute still had to be arbitrated by both the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and the General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council.
The staff went on strike on August 2, claiming they were dismissed by DLCA when they refused to sign new, short-term labour contracts, alleging they were entitled to permanent positions after working for Prodiba for over a decade, although always as short term contractors.
Prodiba was a consortium that was partly owned by Durban businessman and convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik.
After R1,5 billion went missing in 2006 and following much legal wrangling to keep the lucrative business in private hands, Prodiba was eventually taken over by the Department of Transport in May 2015. The company mission now is to contribute to DoT’s strategic objective of a “transport Sector that is safe and secure”.
Driving without a new licence
When thousands of drivers in December last year worried about taking holiday journeys without licences, transport minister Blade Nzimande advised them to get a temporary licence.
Spencer said he did, and it had expired while he waited on the minister’s promise that the long-awaited driver’s licences would delivered by end of December. He echoed the sentiments of many when he said he could not afford to keep paying for a another temporary licence, nor travel repeatedly across town to check if his card had arrived.
As things stand, traffic officers are aware that drivers are waiting on their cards, and in most cases, drivers who have a document “deemed to be a driving licence” and no other infringements, are allowed to continue their journey without incurring a R2 000 fine.
SMS this nr
Meanwhile, driving licence card applicants can SMS their identity numbers to 33214 to get the status of their application.
