Obtaining your Learner's and Driver's Licence in KZN will never be the same again. In every province in our country, departments responsible for transport related matters have been grappling with the following challenges:
-
Addressing the inequalities that arose during apartheid through separate infrastructure development.
-
Addressing problems with existing infrastructure.
-
Addressing corruption relating to the issuing of driving licences.
-
Addressing the fact that our rate of accidents and road related fatalities are unacceptably high.
You’ve all seen the negative publicity that these challenges have generated, amongst others, such as exposes on MNet’s Carte Blanche programme, very recently, spine chilling reports on ETV’s 3rd Degree programme, many talk shows on SABC’s SAFM and other radio stations, and in countless newspaper reports. Indeed, many of you may have even personally experienced these problems or at least know of close friends or relatives who have.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport has spent millions of Rands investigating fraud and prosecuting people over the years. And quite frankly, even though there have been so many investigations, the problems have persisted. In July of this year, the Department took a bold decision to do things very differently in future. It was decided to spend money to eradicate the problems rather than investigating the problems even more. These age old problems are being addressed by using ground breaking technology, even in the deepest of rural areas, which include:
- A new counterpart learners and driving licence card.
- Learner licence mobile units.