The National Administration Traffic Information System (Natis) is approaching its fourth year of operations, but it still only supports online driving license appointment bookings in two of the country’s provinces.
These two provinces are Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, leaving the other seven provinces without access: the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Western Cape, and the North West.
Notably, the North West previously supported the system, but the platform isn’t currently working for residents of the province.
The eNatis interface does not indicate why it is offline in the North West.
In the case of the other unsupported provinces, the eNatis interface brings up a notice stating: “Please take note of the following: Your Province has not been added to the online platform”.
Simon Zwane, spokesperson for the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), previously told MyBroadband that support for the eNatis platform is decided by the relevant provincial authorities.
“The RTMC has made the service available to all provinces and will be able to roll it out as soon as the provincial authorities indicate their readiness to have the services,” he said.
He also noted that some unsupported provinces had expressed interest in the platform and that his organisation was more than happy to offer assistance with the rollout when ready.
The Western Cape transport and public works department also previously stated that it would only consider the adoption of the platform at its Driving License Testing Centre (DLTCs) in 2025/26.
Jandré Bakker, the department spokesperson, indicated that the province had not immediately adopted the system due to its challenges in Gauteng.
“The department has been waiting for a report on the experience of Gauteng to assist with the decision-making process,” he said.
License card issues
Regardless of whether motorists use this platform to complete an online application, getting their driving license card will likely take some time.
This is due to the ongoing difficulties presented by the repeated breakdowns of South Africa’s sole and aged card printing machine – the latest breakdown happened in February this year, with the machine only being repaired on 8 May.
Due to this frequent downtime and the continuous influx of new applications, the backlog of cards is over 700,000.
Even with overtime and extra shifts, clearing this backlog while keeping up with new applications will take several months at least.
“In terms of reducing the backlog as a whole, we try to do monthly updates, but we’re looking at about four to six months,” said Collen Msibi, Department of Transport spokesperson.
However, based on reported figures, with the backlog dropping from 733,000 to 690,00 between 12 June and Msibi’s comments, the machine was averaging around 2,400 cards per day.
At this pace, it will take over a year to clear the remaining 690,000 cards – assuming the card machine remains operational.
Efforts to secure a new card printing machine have been inundated with issues and delays that have effectively derailed the process.
This is mainly due to Idemia South Africa, initially the intended company to secure the new machine, being flagged for issues by Outa and the Auditor-General and subsequently has led to further legal proceedings.
In the interim, the Department of Transport has announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government Printing Works under Home Affairs’ jurisdiction to produce driving licence cards.
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