The Eastern Cape government is set to deploy the electronic licence booking system at all testing centres in the province by February 2010.
Following a pilot project in October 2008, which the department says was successful, all licence bookings will be made through an electronic system that will integrate with and be managed by eNatis.
“The provincial department of transport, after evaluating the pilot system, has agreed to the roll-out as a matter of urgency. The final roll-out date for all provinces is 1 February 2010. All 58 driving licence centres must be rolled out before the computerised learners licence testing can be implemented,” says transport MEC Ghishma Barry.
Centres in King Williams Town, East London, Gonubie, Port Alfred, Kirkwood, Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Humansdorp, Queenstown and Grahamstown will be connected to the centralised booking system, replacing the manual systems.
Similar systems have been implemented in Gauteng, the Western Cape, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal since 2007.
Still lagging
The department says new systems will be deployed in several phases and only once funding has been made available. The next step is to implement a computerised licence testing system, but this would be piloted first before it is implemented.
The booking system will allow driving licence testing centres to arrange bookings according to their available resources. The system will digitally register candidates' details, including biometric information. It will also include an ID bar code system, and capture reservation of date and time of test, and will also integrate the receipting of application fees.
Barry adds that the department is also considering the implementation of a fully-computerised learner's test that has a touch-screen computer. The system would verify the candidate by fingerprint biometrics before the test is done. The computer screen also uses facial image recognition to confirm the test venue and seat for candidates writing the tests. Results would also be made immediately available onscreen.
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