This follows the department's announcement to the public in May 2023 that the machine was taken out of production for three weeks in order to replace a broken part identified during a routine maintenance.
Department spokesperson, Collen Msibi, said the testing of the machine, after the part replacement, took another two weeks before it was certified to go back to full production.
“This will see an increase in production from 60,000 cards produced over the past three weeks during the testing period to about 120,000 cards per week.
“The machine has printed an average 2,850,000 cards per annum in the past two financial years. Since its commissioning in 1998, it has printed over 60 million driving licence cards,” Msibi said.
The backlog is currently at 350 000 cards for the past five weeks, depending on the number of orders received.
He said the department has introduced a catch-up plan to address the backlog, which will be cleared by the end of August 2023.
“The department is currently working on the process to introduce a new driving licence card as approved by Cabinet in August 2022. The new driving licence card will be launched before the end of the current financial year.
“It will also bring with it new card production machines to replace the current machine. This signals the new dawn in the driving licence card environment,” Msibi said.
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