{"id":784884,"date":"2024-07-31T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=784884"},"modified":"2024-07-31T17:54:48","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T15:54:48","slug":"digital-driving-and-car-licences-for-south-africa-and-the-one-thing-standing-in-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/784884\/digital-driving-and-car-licences-for-south-africa-and-the-one-thing-standing-in-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital driving and car licences for South Africa \u2013 and the one thing standing in the way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is no technological or practical reason why South Africa shouldn’t have digital driver’s and car licences, but experts believe that the main obstacle, apart from inefficiencies, is the potential loss of a significant source of government revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For over 25 years, South Africa has relied on an outdated and unreliable printer to produce driver’s licence cards, which take an average of 14 working days per card. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This inefficiency and the printer’s frequent breakdowns have led to a backlog of 1.3 million renewal applications between 2022 and 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the government sought to replace it with a faster, more reliable machine that could also enhance the security features on the cards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a failed bid process in 2022, a new tender was issued in April 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, as of April 2024, the procurement of a new printer from France is still pending\u2014delayed by what the DoT said is a “complex bidding process, ongoing internal audits, and regulatory compliance checks.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, experts have stated that this process is a waste of time, and South Africa should abolish the physical driving license and replace it with a digital-only permit that never expires.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to MyBroadband<\/a>, Rob Handfield-Jones, road safety expert and managing director of driving skills company Driving.co.za. said there is no technological or practical obstacle to digital licensing and enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that this is the same argument for the expiry of licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) CEO Makhosini Msibi said that, in the current situation in South Africa, the time frame specifically concerns the health of the driver, including an eye test to verify their vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo it remains critical that we maintain that process [the current validity period] until all these issues have been dealt with\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Msibi confirmed the validity period of driving licences will remain five years for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the outcome following an initial announcement by former transport minister Fikile Mbalula that the DoT is looking into extending the validity period to 10 years to align with international standards. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Rob Handfield-Jones, road safety expert and managing director of driving skills company Driving.co.za.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

However, Handfield-Jones, along with the Automobile Association (AA) and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), have said that this is a very poor excuse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The only rational conclusion was that it was done solely to generate revenue<\/strong>\u2026 which the Road Traffic Management Corporation won\u2019t give up without a fight,\u201d Handfield-Jones said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my view, the reason the government recently backtracked on extending the renewal period is that the Department of Transport did its sums and realised how much renewal fee revenue would be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage and AA spokesperson Layton Beard have similar suspicions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering the practicality of digital licencing, Handfield-Jones noted that the original rollout of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act aimed for every traffic officer to carry a digital terminal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aarto is South Africa\u2019s new law governing traffic enforcement, scheduled for national implementation on 1 July. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed digital terminal would have facilitated automatic number plate recognition and allowed for verification of details through a central database. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handfield-Jones highlighted that today’s smartphones can perform these functions at low cost, enabling easy roadside verification of both driving licenses and vehicle licenses, which should also be digital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the permanent VIN number markings on vehicles and the requirement for a metal number plate have raised questions about the necessity of a paper license disc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting the potential of digital licences aside, both AA and Outa believe that the department should still look to extend the validity period of licences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beard said the extension would reduce motorists\u2019 costs while Duvenage explained that increasing the validity period would help address the renewal system\u2019s inefficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara Creecy was recently appointed as Minister of Transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outa welcomed the change in leadership at the DoT, noting that the ministry has experienced significant turmoil over the past decade. Seven ministers have been in place in the last 15 years and 11 in the past 20\u2014all with conflicting policy directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStabilising the Department of Transport and its entities, as well as improving its critical functions\u2026 will form part of the new administration\u2019s priorities,\u201d said the DoT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read: How corrupt politicians hide their luxury cars in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no technological or practical reason why South Africa shouldn’t have digital driver’s and car licences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":784960,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[6926,20325,20326,1988,853],"class_list":["post-784884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-aa","tag-dot","tag-driving-co-za","tag-outa","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784884"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":784969,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784884\/revisions\/784969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}