Johannesburg – The implementation of decentralised licence booking in Gauteng has received the "thumbs-up" from transport MEC Bheki Nkosi, the Gauteng provincial government said on Friday.
"Within two days of the walk-in system, there were 11 178 bookings made for both the learners and driver's tests and all these were confirmed with test dates for all applications, said spokesperson Philemon Motshwaedi.
"Most people hailed the intervention and endorsed the new approach by the department."
The system was implemented on October 4 after the call centre approach was cancelled.
Nkosi had been making unannounced visits to testing stations around the province to observe and monitor progress on the walk-in system, said Motshwaedi.
"As much as long queues were evident at most centres, with some people arriving as early as 06:00, the centres were coping well with the challenges as the week progressed," Nkosi was quoted as saying.
Motshwaedi said that by the end of Thursday a total of 24 292 confirmed test bookings were made around all Gauteng licensing centres.
People still being turned away
Of this figure 13 539 were for driver testing and 10 753 were for learner testing, he said.
However, people were still being turned away due to the number of forms being issued per day.
The MEC had made recommendations to the departmental monitoring team on queue management and increasing capacity of centres.
"The walk-in booking system is an intervention plan that will be in place until the impact assessment on the call centre is concluded and findings have been studied," Motshwaedi said.
The department would determine the future of the contact centre approach after studying the findings of the impact assessment.
"At this rate, the Gauteng department of roads and transport is positive that the walk-in booking system will enable it to manage the licensing booking backlog in the province," he said.
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