Pretoria - Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has earmarked the launch of two new driving licence testing centres in Gauteng as the dawn of a new regime within the Transport sector.
The two centres based at the Eco-Park offices in Centurion and the Waterfall Office Park in Midrand officially opened their doors on October 1.
Mbalula said even though the backlog of expired licences province by province appeared insurmountable, initiatives such as the launch of the two centres marked the beginning of a new dawn for service delivery.
"It's a mess in our country to get a licence because you have to resort to corruption and other things, it's a big problem. However, we said from October we said we would implement change and we did just that."
Mbalula said the results witnessed at the centres since they opened were as a result of the co-operation and concurrence between the Department of Transport and Infrastructure and delivered through their agency the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula interacts with customers at the recently opened Eco Park Licensing Centre following the official opening. @IOL #DriversLicence #Licence #Licensing @MbalulaFikile pic.twitter.com/F7R5WLNQDe
— Pretoria News (@pretorianews) October 7, 2021
He once again pledged that the huge backlog of expired licences would be dealt with by the department by March 2022.
Mbalula highlighted that by taking into consideration the damage done to the economy by the Covid-19 pandemic, the government could not be expected to do things alone.
As such he stressed the need for a social compact with the people but most importantly how the social mobilisation of resources would be needed to get things done.
Zola Majavu, the Chairperson of RTMC board, said the services being launched at the recently opened driving licence testing centres (DLTC) were set to reshape the licensing sector and set a new benchmark in the level of professionalism and efficiency expected at centres across the country.
Take a look inside the recently opened Eco Park Licensing Centre in Centurion. @IOL #licence #DrivingLicense #Drive #LicensingCentre @MbalulaFikile pic.twitter.com/nUaZ2nnhWi
— Pretoria News (@pretorianews) October 7, 2021
Majavu said licensing centres had for a long time been associated with long queues, poor service and corruption, something which he said had to change.
In fact, things had already been on the rise as he said they had picked up a number of positive comments from social media from customers who commended the service received at the new centres in the past two days.
Majavu said he was further humbled to have encountered an elderly man who received service at the Waterfall centre and commended the department for being able to renew his license in under 30 minutes during their walk-about of the facilities.
"These kinds of comments reflect the standard of service delivery we wish to maintain at our centres and to extend to all other licensing centres."
"There is no reason why government services should be associated with inferiority, inconvenience and to top it off unpleasantness. We promise to adhere to high standards of service and we will respond speedily when the public raises concerns with us."
He added they would use digital technologies to make further improvements to bring convenience to customers and assured those who had complained of long queues and slow service that their pleas had been heard and they (RTMC) would respond.
Pretoria News