MEDIA RELEASE
NO. 384/2007
9 OCTOBER 2007



SPEECH BY HELEN ZILLE, MAYOR OF CAPE TOWN

RE-OPENING OF OTTERY DRIVING LICENSE AND MOTOR VEHICLE TESTING CENTRE: 9 OCTOBER 2007 – 14:30

Cllr Elizabeth Thompson, Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Cllr Dumisani Ximbi, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Cllr JP Smith, Chairperson of the Safety and Security Portfolio Committee, Acting Traffic Chief, Heathcliff Thomas, members of the City’s traffic department, ladies and gentlemen.

Our primary objective in the City of Cape Town is to create more opportunities for our citizens by promoting economic growth.

This principle is the basis of our IDP, and it informs all of the major decisions we take.

The re-opening of this license and motor vehicle testing centre, after ten years, has therefore been absolutely necessary.

If we want to have a city that is economically growing, we cannot make our people wait 6 months or more before they can take their learners or drivers tests.

For many, a driving license is a pre-requisite for employment, or for the running of a business.

Similarly, we cannot expect companies and private individuals to wait in endless queues for vehicle licenses, as they had to when the eNATIS system was first introduced across the country.

When that system was launched, South African car sales plummeted, some companies had to retrench workers, and 150 000 cars were left in showrooms or depots without permits.

These bottlenecks in state services hurt our economy.

They reduce the opportunities that are available to our people, especially the poor.

They also enrage the public, by wasting people’s time.

I would like to thank Cllr Thompson, Cllr Ximbi, Cllr Smith, Acting Chief Thomas and his team for helping to turn this situation around over the past two years.

In the past year their efforts have seen the opening of the Joe Gqabi Testing Centre in Phillipi and another centre in Linguletu West, Khayelitsha.

A new testing centre in Mitchell's Plain will also be completed in the next few months.

At the same time, we are overhauling the organisation of the traffic police and the rest of the municipal police services for better traffic service delivery, both in the testing centres, and on the roads.

We now have three separate operational units: the metro police, by-law enforcement, and the traffic police.

Our staff have received letters which officially place them into these three units.

In the past, where the entire police service had been amalgamated, we found that traffic policing was being neglected in favour of other policing functions.

Now each of these units will focus on their primary functions.

The citizens of Cape Town will therefore be guaranteed that there is a team in place whose sole purpose is to ensure adequate traffic services, safer roads and better traffic flow.

We will ensure, however, that the metro police remain available for traffic policing where and when necessary.

In addition to improving the organisation and management of our traffic services, we are also bringing in new technology to free staff from unnecessary tasks.

For example, to keep our traffic lights functioning during blackouts, 200 uninterrupted power systems, costing R50 000 each, have been installed at major traffic intersections, and more will be installed.

We have also joined forces with the National Energy Efficiency Agency to introduce solar powered traffic lights with energy derived from solar panels. While this is still a pilot project, we want to extend it across the whole city.

Both of these interventions mean less traffic jams, and will leave our traffic officers free to serve the public, attend to emergencies and undertake conventional traffic policing, rather than standing in for traffic lights.

I would particularly like to thank Cllr Thompson and Transport Executive Director Eddie Chinnappen, for their efforts in making this project happen.

With all of these improvements to our traffic services, I am hopeful that the turn-around times for licensing will continue to decrease.

I am told that we have already reduced the backlog from 6 months to 3 months at most testing stations, and I commend everyone involved for their efforts.

I look forward to seeing everyone together again soon in the new Mitchell’s Plain testing centre.


END

ISSUED BY:
DIRECTORATE: COMMUNICATION
CITY OF CAPE TOWN
TEL: 021 400 2201

MEDIA QUERIES:
ROBERT MACDONALD
CELL: 084 977 9888