No concern over licence deadline

2003-04-28 16:04

Johannesburg - Motorists who have yet convert their drivers' licences to the new credit card format, appeared unconcerned by Wednesday's looming deadline for conversion with no last minute rush reported at traffic offices.

A mere 78 people applied for the "credit card" licences in Johannesburg on Monday, Metro spokeperson Superintendent Wayne Minaar said.

Despite it being a public holiday, testing stations in Sandton, Langlaagte, Midrand, Roodepoort and Randburg had been open from 07:30 until 13:00, especially for licence conversion applications.

Only five people had arrived at Roodepoort, 13 at Midrand, 11 at Sandton, 18 at Randburg and 31 at Langlaagte.

The deadline is May 1 and, according to the records of traffic authorities, about a million people across South Africa have yet to apply for new licences.

"We are prepared to keep our stations open until eight at night if we have to, but people are not coming forward. In Roodepoort today, we had five people come through. Five people for six hours! We are wasting our time," he said.

KZN

In KwaZulu-Natal, six stations were kept open on Saturday, traffic spokesperson Colin Govender said.

He said 1 000 people had come forward on Saturday to convert their licences.

"Considering 1 000 000 motorists still have to convert this was a very poor turnout," he said.

"In the end, a lot of people are going to have to rewrite their learner's tests and then retake their driving tests."

The KwaZulu-Natal stations were not open on Monday, he said.

North West

North West traffic spokesperson James Moche said the testing stations were not open on Monday or at the weekend.

He said there were still 31 000 conversions outstanding, but there had been "no rush" from motorists.

Contingency plans were in place to deal with long queues at the last minute, he said.

However, Moche said that the outstanding conversions might be due to older people not wanting to drive anymore or people who are out of the country.

"Given the media campaign there can't be any reason why people can't come through to convert their licences," Moche said.

- SAPA