Some people believe that a valid driver’s license is optional when driving a car. For example, those who had to give it up in Flensburg because of too many points, but don’t want to do without the drive to the pub themselves. Such people should perhaps not drive at all, with or without a license. There are also those who allegedly do not dare to take the test but still drive an Aston Martin, such as Dortmund soccer professional Marco Reus. In 2014, the police only noticed this after several traffic checks.
But what if you pass the driver’s license test – like Reus did two years later – but still can’t drive because the relevant authority can’t issue a driver’s license? That’s what happened in South Africa. The country’s only driver’s license printer broke down there last November. A real problem, made worse by the fact that South Africa requires a driver’s license to be renewed every five years. Hundreds of thousands of motorists whose rags had run out acted illegally (innocently) in moving their vehicles because the machine, which had been purchased in the 1990s, was not replenishing. It had to be specially repaired in Germany.
But now Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has announced the good news: “We’re back in business, we’re working very hard – hallelujah,” he says in a Twitter video that he recorded during a visit to the printer. A brand new printer will be purchased soon. The excuse “machine broken” will no longer work in the future.
Read more good news here.