Civil society group Outa has made a plea to the government to scrap the current five-year driver’s licence and replace it with a system that allows licences to be renewed every 10 years.
According to Business Tech, Outa chief executive, Wayne Duvenage, said a change is needed as the current system collapsed due to its ongoing technical issues. South Africa currently has a backlog of an estimated 500 000 driving licence cards due to the machine that prints licences breaking down.
Duvenage further added that the country’s driving licence testing centres are impacted continuously by corruption and administrative issues, which also plays a part in long delays and other problems.
“This has become a mammoth fiasco. It shouldn’t be this difficult to get your driver’s licence; it should be a very easy process. It has been an easy process in the past. Now it’s become so difficult just to get a slot and actually get your licence”, says Wayne as per Business Tech.
He strongly believes that introducing a 10-year system will help reduce the strain and that it is successfully used in seven other countries.
A report by Afrikaans newspaper, Rapport indicated that at least 383,000 pending licence cards have not been printed due to the breakdown at the beginning of December and the number continues to rise. In response, the Department of Transport requires motorists to pay R90 for a temporary driving permit until their new licence is printed.
Robert Chandler, head of the Southern African Institute of Driving Instructors, said half a million motorists are being impacted by this breakdown, which means the department stands a chance of R45 million from these temporary permits.
The department extended the validity period of learner’s licences, driver’s licence cards, temporary driving permits, and professional driving permits that expired between 26 March 2020 and 31 August 2021 to 31 March 2022.
Meanwhile, hundreds of South African motorists are at risk of being stuck with expired licence cards during the first few months of 2022 because of the machine, reports My Broadband.
According to Rapport, the transport department was warned by the DA years ago that the machine was on its last legs and there was no backup plan if it should fail.
Many motorists have struggled to secure their renewal appointments for licence cards using the department’s online booking system. They were also impacted by the backlog of motorists allowed to renew their licence in the same timeframe.
Mbalula promised a new smart licence card that complied with international standards to be ready at the end of 2021 and that it would help solve the production problems currently faced. However, in December, the minister said the plans for the new card would only be unveiled in early 2022.
Outa proposed the best solution would be to extend the validity period of all driver’s licence cards from five to 10 years and that this change had been approved in a government gazette in November 2012, but the decision was reversed before the changes could be put in place in October 2013.
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