Extending the driver’s licence card renewal period to 10 years should be top priority for the South African authorities, following the third breakdown of the country’s only licence card printing machine in less than 18 months and court action initiated by two parties.
The ruling party has before shown a willingness to budge on the matter, with ex-transport minister Fikile Mbalula in October 2022 announcing that his department will approach Cabinet with a proposition to extend the renewal period from five to eight years.
Thus far, however, no further action has been taken.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), one of the most prominent voices currently lobbying the authorities to lengthen the renewal period on licence cards, argues extending it will be beneficial for both motorists and the government.
“South Africa (more specifically the most populous Gauteng Province) has for some time experienced significant challenges with its driving licence card renewal process,” said Outa.
“The online booking system recently introduced was supposed to alleviate the manual process of phoning or visiting a testing centre to book an appointment and provide greater efficiency to the licence renewal experience. Instead, it has become a problem, and other issues intended to be resolved, have remained.”
The organisation said it is still extremely difficult to book a driver’s licence renewal online, and when visiting the testing centres there are long queues. As a result, many motorists have become dissatisfied and frustrated by the challenge to renew their cards and this often leads to the abandonment of their legal obligations.
10-year licences are the answer
“While there is an obvious need for efficiency in the administration of the driving licence card renewal process, we believe that an immediate solution is one whereby the Department of Transport amends the regulations to stipulate that all driver’s licences are applicable for a period of 10 years,” said Outa.
Extending the driver’s licence renewal period will have many benefits, said Outa, chief of which being that it will “afford government time to rectify some of the major issues currently being experienced in the renewal process, whilst immediately eliminating the current and future backlogs.”
“We also believe that our recommendations will bear significant savings for South Africans as well as Government, in both expenditure and efficacy and reduce time wasted.”
The organisation contends that there will be no drawback to any party involved if the 10-year renewal period is instated as doing this is “very easy and does not cost a thing” and it will also bring the country in line with international best practices.
“Unfortunately, one can only speculate as to why government is reluctant to extend the renewal period, Outa fails to understand why action is not being taken as this is nothing new,” said Outa.
“In 2013 the then-Minister of Transport, Ms. Dipuo Peters, published a government gazette extending the validity period to 10 years, but for some reason, the decision was rescinded with no apparent documented reasons for this recission decision.”
Keyword: Inside the fight to extend drivers’ licences to 10 years in South Africa