Driving license card back in production

Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s)

The Department of Transport says the production of driving license card is back in full force following almost a month long stoppage.

The Department became a laughing stock to the nation after making an announcement to the public in May 2023 that the machine was taken out of production for three weeks in order to replace a broken part identified during a routine maintenance. 

Questions were made to the department on if this means they are using one machine or not.

The Department’s Collen Msibi, said the testing of the machine, after the part replacement, took another two weeks before it was certified to go back to full production. 

“This will see an increase in production from 60 000 cards produced over the past three weeks during the testing period to about 120 000 cards per week.”

“The machine has printed an average 2 850 000 cards per annum in the past two financial years. Since its commissioning in 1998, it has printed over 60 million driving licence cards,” Msibi said.

The backlog is currently at 350 000 cards for the past five weeks, depending on the number of orders received. 

He said they have come up with a plan to finish the backlog by August 2023 while they are also working on introducing a new type of driving license card which is set to be discussed with the cabinet.