Africa-Press – Malawi. The Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services (DRTSS) has resumed issuing driver licence cards over two years after suspending the services. For the past four years, the directorate has been struggling to issue licence cards and security papers which are used for printing bluebooks, road permits, trade entities and certificates of fitness.
Officials at the department have been attributing the problem to lack of foreign exchange, among other problems. The problem worsened some two years ago, when the directorate was forced to suspend the issuance of cards and security papers, only to resume service delivery late last year before halting it after a short time.
But when The Daily Times crew visited the department’s Southern Region offices in Blantyre Thursday, it found that motorists have been obtaining their licences after waiting for a long time.
When asked about what caused the problem and whether the challenge has been addressed for good, the directorate’s director Andrew Sandula referred us to Transport and Public Works Ministry spokesperson Watison Maingo, who was yet to respond to our questionnaire as we went to press.
Meanwhile, Minibus Owners Association of Malawi General Secretary Coxley Kamange has lauded the department for restoring service. “The problem inconvenienced most of the motorists. In fact, most drivers could not take proper care of temporary licences because they were paper-based ones.
“Our hope is that the problem has been rectified for good,” Kamange said. Following the absence of the cards, the directorate has been providing motorists with temporary driving licences printed on a normal A4 paper.
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