Pretoria - Motorists who applied for new driving licences and or renewal of their licence cards last year risk having their cards defaced as they continue not to present themselves for collection.
While new and old licensed drivers were frustrated by the backlog to attain secure appointments to renew their appointment cards online, scores of motorists whose cards were ready did not come to collect them.
Meanwhile, the public was earlier this year putting the government under pressure to resolve the backlog to allow all motorists to obtain valid driver’s licence cards to avoid receiving traffic law infringement fines and losing insurance claims when the grace period to drive with expired cards ends.
Moreover, scores of driving licence testing centres in Gauteng, particularly in Tshwane and Johannesburg metropolitans, were shut down because driving schools operators complained about the online system as it made it hard for them to secure appointments for their new learner drivers. This, as well, was said to have contributed to the delays in the work to ensure drivers’ licences were issued.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has come out to urge all motorists who applied for new driving licence cards or renewal of their licence cards between October and December last year to present themselves for collection as scores of cards now remain uncollected.
Spokesperson Simon Zwane said: “Applicants are warned that regulation 108 of the National Road Traffic Act empowers licensing centres to ‘deface an unclaimed driving licence card 120 days’ after they were notified to collect the cards.
“Once an unclaimed driving licence has been defaced, the applicant will be compelled to re-apply and pay the costs again. Motorists are advised to avoid this scenario and collect their cards while there is sufficient time. The backlog in the printing of driving licence cards has been cleared and the turnaround time for the delivery cards has improved tremendously.”
Applicants should take advantage of shorter queues and come on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. There are two ways applicants can check the status of their driving licence. One is to SMS their ID number to 33214 and expect one of the following outcomes. Applicants can check the status by visiting online.natis.gov.za and create a profile using their telephone, email or cellphone number, together with ID numbers.
Pretoria News