{"id":833384,"date":"2025-07-30T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=833384"},"modified":"2025-07-29T14:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:31:14","slug":"driving-licence-warning-for-south-africa-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/833384\/driving-licence-warning-for-south-africa-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving licence warning for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans have been warned to always keep their driving licences on hand, or risk being fined. Those impacted by the application backlog also need to provide valid proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During a recent operation in the Cape Town CBD, city tariff officers recorded 164 transgressions, 54 of which were motorists who could not provide a driver\u2019s licence. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city warned that motorists must always carry their original driving licence while operating a vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photocopies or digital images are not considered a valid substitute. If you are a licensed driver but do not have your original licence with you, you can be fined R500. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the card has been lost or stolen, proof of the new application should be kept on hand in case you are stopped.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This also applies to drivers who have applied for a new licence card but could not get it due to the printing machine delays earlier in the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These drivers either have to have a valid temporary licence on hand or proof of the application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s quite alarming to realise how many people are driving without valid licences, or proof of a valid licence,” said Cape Town MMC for Safety JP Smith.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It might seem of little consequence, but the fact is, officers are duty-bound to enforce the law.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith said the city is facing massive challenges with unlicensed drivers who are a danger to themselves and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Presentation of that driving licence card is the only way to prove that you are behind the wheel legally.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Printing delays<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The licence card warning comes as the transport department and Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) deal with a backlog of applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The backlog accrued while the country’s only card printing machine was out of service earlier in the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department has urged South Africans who have applied for new licence cards to keep their proof of application with them, which can be used as validation while the backlog is being dealt with.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to a parliamentary Q&A in June, the department said that the backlog of cards that need to be printed is sitting at 733,000 cards.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was, however, an improvement of 14,500 since the start of May, since the driving licence machine returned to service following a breakdown in February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civil action group Outa said the printer can only process between 14,000 and 19,000 cards in a 14-hour shift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, clearing that backlog would take 40 to 53 days, excluding adding any new card applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa\u2019s printing machine has seen at least 160 breakdowns over its 26-year lifespan, with breakdowns becoming more frequent with age. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country\u2019s plan to acquire new printing machines has also been placed on ice, pending a declatory order for the courts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country has attempted to overhaul its licensing regime by adding new, updated, more secure cards with additional printers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new machines would also be maintained and repaired in South Africa, unlike the older machines that needed to be shipped overseas for repairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the tender process has not gone well, with a R900 million contract awarded to a company only to be pulled into an Auditor General (AGSA) investigation over irregularities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy\u00a0filed papers at the Pretoria High Court in mid-July, requesting that the contract for new driving licence printers be\u00a0set aside<\/a>\u00a0and the tender process re-run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an interim solution, the department is turning to the Department of Home Affairs\u2019 Government Printing Works (GPW) for assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Motorists have been warned that driving licence card printing delays are no excuse for not having the appropriate proof of licence on hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":817846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[2356,8343,1988],"class_list":["post-833384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-city-of-cape-town","tag-department-for-transport","tag-outa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833384","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833384"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833450,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833384\/revisions\/833450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}