Minister Of Transport Fikile Mbalula conducts a road safety operation. (Gallo Images)
The cabinet committee on justice, crime prevention and security will, within the next two weeks, consider and sign off on the design for South Africa’s long-anticipated new driver’s licence smart card.
Once the committee has endorsed the design of the smart card, it will be tabled before the cabinet for final approval, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula told the Mail & Guardian this week.
Thereafter there will be a procurement process for manufacturing the cards, and the new driver’s licence will be introduced in October 2023, Mbalula told a news briefing last week.
The card was to have been “introduced in the mid-2021/2022 financial year”, according to the annual performance plan of the Driving Licence Card Account — the department entity responsible for manufacturing the cards.
The M&G has previously reported that a transport department document dated September 2012 noted that it had, since 2009, wanted to move to smart card technology.
Renewed criticism over the huge backlog in issuing driver’s licences and the introduction of a smart card driver’s licence come after the outdated card printing machine broke down in November last year and was only up and running again on 20 January.
As of 1 February this year, there was a backlog of 597 492 applications for driver’s licences.
Mbalula said the Driving Licence Card Account printed just over 128 000 cards while working on a 24-hour schedule over two weeks after 20 January. At this rate, it will take about four months to clear the backlog for current driver’s licence renewals.
Mbalula said the number of licence cards expiring by 31 March this year is 2.1-million, but he was confident this would be cleared by September this year.
The civil action group, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), told the M&G that it remains doubtful that a new system will be in place before October next year.
“If indeed it is managed internally, we need to see a completely open and transparent process, especially when it comes down to purchasing the card printing machine,” said Outa chief executive Wayne Duvenage. “What we would like to see is meaningful stakeholder engagement to address serious issues.”
Although the Automobile Association (AA) has welcomed Mbalula’s announcement about the issuing of the new smart card, it argues that existing problems “around applying [for] and [the] issuing of cards” must first be solved.
Outa and the AA have called for driver’s licences to be valid for 10 years, instead of the current five, arguing that this will significantly reduce delays and backlogs in issuing licences.
Mbalula said the Road Traffic Management Corporation had appointed a panel of researchers to determine whether a 10-year validity period could be implemented but, according to Duvenage, the issue was not a difficult one.
“Very little research needs to be done. In fact, the decision was made, following expected research done in 2013 by Minister Dipuo Peters’ office, when the decision to extend it to 10 years was already made,” said Duvenage.
He argued that the decision to extend the validity of driver’s licences to 10 years could bring immediate relief while the transport department “get their administration act together” in clearing the backlog.
He believes the department does not, and has never had, “the appetite” to go down this road and will probably drag out a final decision for as long as it can.
Driver’s licences have become a money making racket, according to Duvenage.
“You pay through the nose to get your licence. You have to buy a document from the government, which should be given to you by the government,” he said.
“Additional taxes are introduced to these additional entities and empires that are set out not in the best interests of the public, but to make money out of the public.”
The AA welcomed the research on increasing the validity period of the driver’s licence.
“The AA has urged the government to extend the validity period of driving licences from five to 10 years as a way of dealing more effectively with renewals,” it said in a statement. “We welcome the fact that this is being discussed and reviewed and look forward to the findings from the research which, we are certain, will support our view that this should happen.”
Because of the current backlog of driver’s licences, those that expired between 26 March 2020 and 31 August 2021 are deemed valid until 31 March 2022.
People whose licence cards expired after 31 August this year are required to apply for a temporary driver’s licence.
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