South Africa
Govt needs to deal with root cause of driving licence backlog - Outa─── 16:52 Fri, 21 Oct 2022
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) says the country is in for a bumpy ride if government keeps reacting to the driving licence headaches - instead of tackling them proactively.
Outa's been commenting after the country's only driver licence printing machine broke down again recently.
The Transport Ministry said it came back online on Wednesday, and explained that the machine, which is now over 20-years-old, was affected by a power failure.
But Outa's Andrea van Heerden says it's not a new problem.
She's highlighted last year's breakdown that prevented millions from completing their licence card renewal applications.
“We honestly feel that government lacks the willingness or appetite to fix the core issues. Not necessarily the symptoms of it, which for instance, entails the breakdown of the machine. It would immediately alleviate the backlog, or any backlog issue.
“And, number two, it would afford government an opportunity to look at the system and iron out any specific issues, or the root cause of this. Number one which is corruption, as we all know.”
