Important announcement about driving licence renewals in South Africa

The City of Cape Town has urged residents to keep their expired driving licence cards on them and apply for a temporary licence as the country continues to struggle with delays in printing cards.

South Africa’s driving licence card printing machine has reportedly broken down once again, leading to delays in processing new licence and renewal applications.

The breakdown was first reported by the City Press in March, quoting insiders at the Department of Transport.

The country’s only licence card printing machine had reportedly stopped working in January.

The sources added that the machine breaks down frequently, which has resulted in a growing backlog of driver’s licences waiting to be printed.

This has now been confirmed by the City of Cape Town, which said that its testing centres have processed nearly 60,000 applications for new driving licences and Public Driving Permits (PrDPs) since the beginning of the year, and not a single card has been received.

“Not a single card has been received for those applications from the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) in Pretoria – a national entity that produces these driving licence cards for the whole country,” it said.

“It is our understanding that the machine used in the production of the cards broke down yet again – and since repairs can only happen abroad, it is anyone’s guess as to when the situation will be remedied.”

The city said that it experienced the same issue at the start of 2022, adding that it has been a continuous frustration.

What to do if your licence has expired

The breakdown has serious implications for motorists who have applied to renew their licences, as it means they are likely to be stuck with expired cards with no indication of when the new ones will arrive.

Unfortunately for drivers, the broken machine and delays are not an excuse to drive unlicenced, with the city stressing that that there are provisions to ensure that they are within the law.

In terms of the National Road Traffic Act, an expired driving licence card will remain valid for a period of three months from the date of expiry, if a renewal application was made before the expiry date.

The condition for this is that the holder of the licence must be in possession of the expired card and proof of payment.

If the situation is not resolved within the three months, an application can be made for a temporary licence, which is valid for six months, or until the new/replacement driving licence card is issued.

The renewal of a driving licence card after its expiry date will automatically require a temporary licence, which costs R45, the city said.

“This does not apply to new drivers, who are issued with a temporary licence on successfully completing their licence test,” it said.

No end in sight

The breakdown of the printing machine is yet another in a long line of malfunctions that have marred the licence application and renewal process for years.

Unfortunately, there does not appear to be an end in sight for these problems after the latest tender process for new printing machines and updated licence cards was flagged for irregularities.

Earlier in March, the Department of Transport announced that it initiated legal action to block the awarding of a contract for new printing driving licence printing machines following an AGSA investigation into the tendering process.

The AGSA found that the tender was irregularly handled, including instances of non-compliance with required processes.

The process was non-compliant with supply chain management prescripts, the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Treasury Regulations and Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) policies, it said.

According to civil action group Outa, the bid would have cost South African taxpayers just under R900 million, which the AGSA was not in line with DLCA budgets, which were R490 million.

There were also inconsistencies with the application and scoring process and the evaluation process, it said.

While the DoT’s lawyers have since advised against cancelling the tender, it is highly unlikely that the contract can proceed without legal challenges.

No matter how the department moves ahead—restarting the tender process or trying to push through the irregular tender—there will be significant delays.

In the meantime, South Africa will be stuck with the same old, single and breakdown-prone printing machine holding up processes.