Vehicle licence disc warning for South Africa
Licence centres in South Africa have run out of specialised paper needed for licence discs and registration documents, with motorists being turned away and unable to renew their licences.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) CEO Wayne Duvenage said the shortages are another example of South African motorists paying the price for a licensing system that is failing to perform its most basic functions.
He said reports that Johannesburg licensing centres had run out of the specialised secure paper needed to print vehicle licence discs and registration documents pointed to poor planning rather than an unforeseen problem.
“This is just bad planning. It’s specialised, it has to be ordered. You have to plan for this,” Duvenage said in an interview with HOT Business.
“It’s not like they didn’t know that they were running out of paper. It’s not like they don’t know how many people are coming to have their licences done and renewed. So this is just sheer incompetence, quite frankly.”
Duvenage argued that the issue extends beyond Johannesburg and reflects broader problems within South Africa’s licensing system.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily an isolated problem as far as Johannesburg is concerned, but probably a symptom of a wider national dysfunction,” he said.
He added that motorists bear the cost of these failures, often taking time off work and spending hours at licensing centres only to be turned away.
“People plan their days, they take time off work to go and get these licences done. It takes a long time. It’s a hell of an effort to get there, only to be told we’ve run out of paper. Basic stuff is just unacceptable.”
According to Duvenage, South Africa should have modernised its licensing system years ago by moving to digital services instead of relying on outdated technology.
“We should have been far ahead of where we are. The whole licensing system should be digitised on your phones by now. We’re still running very old systems,” he said.
“I don’t know why the Department of Transport is just not getting its act together and getting all of this coordinated properly so that we can move into the new age of technology. We are so far behind.”
Funding is not an issue
For motorists struggling to renew their licences, Duvenage said there is little practical proof they can keep if they are turned away because of system failures or paper shortages.
“It’s very difficult to have proof other than trying to photograph that you were there, but no police officer is going to do anything about that,” he said.
He urged motorists to renew as early as possible within the three-month renewal window and continue putting pressure on the government to modernise the system.
Duvenage said OUTA had previously proposed extending the driver’s licence renewal period to 10 years to reduce pressure on licensing centres.
He maintained that the Department of Transport ultimately carries responsibility for the failures, regardless of whether provinces or municipalities are involved.
“If you’re the Minister of Transport, this ultimately sits with you,” Duvenage said.
“You need to get everybody into the room and say this is grossly unacceptable. You could automate the whole ordering system. It’s not difficult. It’s not rocket science. It’s just a lack of will and competence.”
Duvenage also dismissed suggestions that funding is the primary obstacle. “I believe we have enough money in this country to fix anything if every rand was spent where it should be spent,” he said.
“It’s just that too much money goes missing for the wrong reasons. Corruption is probably the reason why they run out of money because they’re not spending it in the right areas.”
He added that authorities should have acted immediately once the shortages became apparent. “They should have rushed off to wherever they have to go and get this paper and get it delivered,” Duvenage said.
“Whoever is in charge of transport in the city must take responsibility, but so should the Gauteng MEC for Transport and the minister,” he said.
“They all know about it, and this is the biggest city. When people in Joburg are queuing up and being told we’ve run out of paper, it really is a problem.”
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