The minister of transport, Sindisiwe Chikunga, this week announced that she will take the proposal to extend the validity period for driver’s licences in South Africa to cabinet before any other proposal currently on her desk.
The proposal, first tabled by ex-transport minister Fikile Mbalula in October 2022, aims to extend the validity period for driver’s licence cards in the country to eight years, up from the current five.
The decision, however, is still subject to approval by Cabinet.
Several industry participants including the Automobile Association (AA) and Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) have called on government to extend the validity period, arguing that doing so will cut down on unnecessary red tape, reduce administrative challenges, and save money both for the government and citizens in the long run.
“We believe there will be no adverse impact on the lives of South Africans in the case of extending driver’s licence renewals,” said Outa.
Tender document showing South Africa’s new licence card
Why the wait?
The introduction of the longer validity period for driver’s licences in South Africa is expected to coincide with the launch of the country’s new licence cards, which the Department of Transport (DoT) spokesman Collen Msibi said is scheduled to happen within “this financial year” – i.e. before the end of March 2024.
The new licence is starting with a pilot project that will run for four months to assess whether it works as intended, and thereafter it will be introduced to the entire country. The transition period from the old to the new card is expected to take around five years.
Alongside the new licence, the DoT will procure several new card printers to replace the ageing machine that is currently being used, of which there is only one in South Africa.
Not only that, the printer is so old that it is the last of its kind to be used by any country in the world, leading to at least three breakdowns in the past 18 months. This has caused massive renewal backlogs leading to many motorists having to drive around every day with an expired licence through no fault of their own.
ex-Transport minister Fikile Mbalula with the current licence card printing machine.
There have been several hiccups with the tender process for the new licence and printer, however, which has led to delays in implementing the initiatives, as reported by MoneyWeb.
Between when the proposal was initially announced and now, the tender has been issued and close no fewer than four times without any award being made, with the DoT restarting the process each time.
This can be a costly exercise for tender applicants who must submit extensive research reports to the department with each new application window in order to prove that they are able to do the work in hopes of winning the tender.
“I’ve spoken to one of the tenderers and they said it’s just crazy. It costs a lot of time, effort, and money, and every time you redo it, [the DoT] get insights into people’s tenders,” said Wayne Duvenage, Outa CEO.
“This is a common agenda. They take this information and give it to their cronies, who then formulate similar tenders and then find other middlemen to do it or end suppliers. But they put in these middlemen costs.”
The AA and Outa have both called for more transparency on the situation, but these have fallen on deaf ears.
“If there is a lack of transparency in the procurement and tender process, people are going to draw their own conclusions,” said the AA’s Layton Beard.
“You have to ask government why they feel the need to not be more open in terms of this process.”
Keyword: 8-year driver’s licences coming for South Africa