DA calls on Transport MEC to intervene in local municipalities’ failure to issue driver’s licenses

Issued by Trudie Grovè-Morgan: MPL – DA Spokesperson on Public Works, Roads & Transport
11 Sep 2020 in Press Releases

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga calls on the provincial Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport to immediately take over the issuing driver’s licenses and license disks from local municipalities that are struggling to roll out this critical function. 

 

The following municipalities: Govan Mbeki, The City of Mbombela, Msukaligwa, Albert Luthuli, Victor Khanye, Thaba Chweu and Thembisile Hani are presently having issues in rolling out driver’s licenses and license discs. The following reasons have been given for the delays: 

 

– In Govan Mbeki, the Traffic Department’s system is offline more than it is online which has resulted in long queues and people being turned away; 

– In White River, printers are not working, there is a shortage of special paper for license discs and the system is constantly offline; 

– In Msukaligwa, there is a chronic lack of ink for printers, no special paper and complaints of the system being constantly offline; 

– Recently Victor Khanye Local Municipality also  reported a shortage of special paper; and 

– There have been complaints that both the Chief Albert Luthuli Municipality and the Traffic Department in KwaMhlanga, Thembisile Hani have been affected by the issue of offline systems. 

 

Given the chronic challenge of systems being offline at the abovementioned municipalities, the DA calls on the MEC of Public Works, Roads and Transport, Gillion Mashego, to assess the current system and to make urgent improvements where needed. We also call on the MEC to ensure that local traffic departments are adequately resourced and stocked to provide efficient services to residents of this province. 

 

For several years, individual traffic departments in local Mpumalanga municipalities have been struggling to provide essential service to the residents in their locality. The DA is of the view that if those individual municipalities are not able to provide the necessary services, they should hand their functions over to the provincial Department.