Driver’s licence card renewals grind to a halt in South Africa’s richest city

Motorists visiting Driver’s Licence Testing Centres (DLTCs) in parts of Johannesburg are facing major service disruptions.

This was revealed by Moshe Koma, the City of Johannesburg’s MMC for Public Safety, who spoke about the situation in an interview with 702. 

He explained that some DLTCs have had their operations disrupted due to a contract dispute that has left them without the necessary resources to process transactions.

The disruption is the result of an expired contract with a service provider, which ended in early September and has yet to be replaced.

It involves the city’s information and communications technology (ICT) department, which manages services across the municipality, according to BusinessTech.

Until the matter is resolved, there are concerns that the disruptions will affect motorists’ ability to renew their driver’s licences and car licence discs.

Koma said that the municipality had intervened to resolve the matter, and that the provincial government and the Department of Transport and Road Transport were also involved because of an existing service-level agreement between the parties.

Disruptions have been reported at DLTCs in Midrand, Langlaagte, and the Waterfall Office Park.

The issue has also raised questions regarding why the municipality did not have contingency arrangements in place before the contract expired to prevent this sort of thing from happening.

The agreement had a set expiry date, meaning the municipality should have anticipated the need to find a replacement provider and prevented service disruptions.

Koma said that the previous service provider had been expected to continue supporting the city until the new contract came into effect, but that things did not play out as intended/

He commented that the problem occurred at the administrative level, and acknowledged the concerns about disruptions to municipal services.

The city is now working to appoint a new contractor to solve the issue and prevent any further disruptions. Koma did not provide a date by which this would be completed.

“What is important is that now we are involved in making sure that the situation doesn’t happen again,” he said.