South Africa is facing yet another driving licence fiasco as its only card printing machine is out of order. The Department of Transport has announced that routine maintenance of the card-printing machine started at the beginning of last month, but a critical part of the equipment broke down, causing the machine to go offline. The department anticipates that it could take two to three weeks to get the machine back in action.
Last year, the same machine broke down and was not working for four weeks, resulting in a serious backlog. This year’s breakdown could lead to similar chaos. However, the department has reassured South Africans that this will not affect the production of driver’s licence cards and encouraged people to continue applying for their cards as per normal.
The situation has sparked anger and frustration among drivers who are already grappling with a long wait for their driving licence cards. Many are calling for the department to invest in additional machines and resources to avoid such situations in the future.