Good news for driving licences in South Africa
The backlog of driving licence card applications in South Africa has been significantly reduced in recent months, but some are still not convinced that the problem will be solved.
According to Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi, the number of outstanding licence cards has more than halved in just four months, falling from 756,227 in May to 336,028 by mid-September.
The massive delays began in February when the country’s only licence card printing machine broke down.
The machine, now more than 25 years old, has suffered repeated failures over its lifetime, breaking down over 160 times.
This left the Driving Licence Card Authority (DLCA) struggling to meet demand, with motorists waiting months to receive their cards.
The machine was only restored to operation in early May, at which point the backlog had grown to more than three-quarters of a million cards.
Since then, the DLCA has been running 24-hour shifts to catch up. Msibi explained that the priority was to bring the backlog down to an “acceptable level” before the end of the year.
At the current rate of progress, the authority expects the backlog to be fully cleared by December, offering some much-needed relief to motorists still waiting for their documents.
If everything stays on track, drivers could see the problem resolved just in time for Christmas.
The Department of Transport has also been working on a longer-term but still temporary solution to prevent future crises.
In July, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy announced that the department had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Home Affairs to establish an interim licence printing system.
Under the agreement, the Government Printing Works, which already produces passports and Smart ID cards, will print driving licences.
The interim system was expected to be operational within three months, which would mean it should start running in October.
Future of driving licences questioned
The new arrangement is intended to provide much-needed backup capacity to South Africa’s ageing and unreliable printing machine, helping to avoid the production bottlenecks motorists have experienced this year.
If the plan rolls out smoothly, it should strengthen the government’s ability to issue driving licences consistently and on time.
However, not everyone is convinced that the problem is close to being solved.
Civil rights group AfriForum has raised concerns that ongoing system failures could trigger a similar situation to what happened with the unpopular e-toll scheme and the now-failing TV licence system.
AfriForum campaign officer Louis Boshoff argued that motorists cannot be expected to comply with renewal requirements if the government makes it unnecessarily difficult to obtain a valid licence card.
He warned that civil disobedience has historically taken root when obligations are seen as unfair or impractical.
“History teaches us that civil non-compliance occurs when unreasonable obligations are imposed by the government. Just look at what happened with e-tolls and TV licences,” Boshoff said.
The comparisons are telling. The South African Broadcasting Corporation’s TV licence scheme has effectively collapsed due to mass non-payment.
By 2023/24, intentional avoidance had reached 86%, with only 14% of licence holders paying their fees.
This cost the SABC around R4.3 billion in lost revenue for that year alone, while many households that should hold licences never applied for them in the first place. The broadcaster is now awaiting a new funding model to replace the broken system.
E-tolls followed a similar path. Launched in 2013 to fund Gauteng’s freeway upgrades, the system was widely rejected by motorists, many of whom simply refused to pay.
Years of resistance, supported by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), culminated in the formal scrapping of the scheme in April 2024.
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