The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is finalizing an agreement with the Health Professions Council of South Africa that will allow motorists applying for or renewing their driver’s licenses to have their eye tests done at any optometrist of their choice.
This announcement was made by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula during the Transport 2022/23 Budget Vote this week.
“The RTMC is finalising the agreement with the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which would enable motorists to do an eye test at an optometrist of their choice, and results are directly uploaded in the system,” he said.
Mbalula said improving efficiencies at Driving Licence Testing Centres (DLTC) level will be driven by a new service delivery model that will not only improve the experience of the motorist but will drastically cut down turn-around times.
“These will range from the time a motorist spends at a DLTC to the time it takes to receive a driving licence. We have already implemented the online payment system, eliminating another queue the motorist would have spent time on in the past,” he added.
He further added that the deployment of smart enrolment infrastructure this financial year will further improve the processing time as the units are linked to Home Affairs in real-time to validate the identity of the motorist.
“Since January 2022, the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA), has produced one million and twenty-six thousand six hundred and seventy-four (1,026,674) cards. As on 16 May 2022, we remain with a backlog of five hundred and twenty-six thousand eight hundred and forty-one (526,841) cards. With the additional capacity we have introduced at DLCA, we are confident that this backlog will be addressed by the end of June 2022,” said Mbalula.
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