South Africa’s Department of Transport is set to introduce new digital driving licence cards in the current financial year as it seeks to further advance the automation and virtualisation of the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA).
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This development is expected to streamline and expedite the process of obtaining and renewing driving licences in the country, while potentially extending the validity of the licences.
As per the department’s annual performance plan for the 2023/24 financial year, the digital driving licence is part of a long-term strategy aimed at optimising driving licence production and reducing the time taken to produce and distribute licences through the DLCA.
Over the medium term, which spans the next three years leading up to 2025/26, the department has disclosed that it will prioritise the roll-out of virtual cards alongside other initiatives. These initiatives include the automation of manual operations involved in the driving licence application process.
As reported by Business Insider, the Department of Transport revealed that, in 2022, the average processing time required to issue a driving licence was 26 days. It has set an ambitious target of reducing this time frame to just 14 days for the current year, 2023. And by 2025, the department aims to further improve the processing time to a mere 10 days.
The announcement is part of the department’s broader efforts to streamline and expedite the production and distribution of driving licences through the DLCA as it moves towards greater automation and virtualisation.
The department said, ‘Producing a driving licence card within five days is an achievable goal that requires us to work diligently in the service of our people,’ the department said.
‘Moving away from paper-based processes in our service delivery environment would enable us to drastically cut the turnaround times. This should include processing of applications for operating licences, tourist accreditations and other similar processes.’
The South African Department of Transport first revealed plans for digital driving licences in 2022, when the former transport minister, Fikile Mbalula, announced that the department would launch the system in the 2024/25 financial year.
The card will be officially known as a mobile or electronic driver’s licence (eDL).
With the introduction of the eDL, motorists will have the option to apply for either a physical card or an electronic driver’s licence that can be accessed via a mobile phone. The DLCA has cited the increased penetration of mobile broadband across the country as a key factor enabling the introduction of electronic licences.
The digital licence will be preceded by a new driving licence card, slated for launch in 2023, which will feature enhanced security measures such as biometric data, holograms and watermarks to curb the prevalence of fraudulent licences and improve road safety.
The current driving licence cards will be phased out, and the printing machine responsible for producing them will be decommissioned in 2023.
A new system will be introduced that links driving licence cards to smart-card technology. Mbalula confirmed in late 2022 that a pilot of the new licences would take place between 1 November 2023 and 31 March 2024.
The department is working towards extending the validity of the cards beyond the current five-year period, with suggestions that the new cards could have an eight-year validity period. Current driving licence cards will remain valid until 31 March 2029.
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