The current licence card printing machine is 26 years old and has experienced almost 160 breakdowns.
There is some good news for thousands of South African motorists across the country who are currently driving with expired licences.
This comes after the Department of Transport (DoT) on Thursday confirmed that the driving license card printing machine has been fixed and operations have resumed.
South Africa’s only driver’s licence card printer has been plagued by breakdowns.
The machine has been out of order since January, creating a massive backlog in driver’s licences. Few to no cards have been issued since the start of the year.
The current licence card printing machine is 26 years old and has experienced almost 160 breakdowns, which have become more frequent.
Backlog
It has led to another problem of a backlog of 747 748 outstanding cards to be printed.
According to the Transport Department, the backlog breakdown per province as of 02 May 2025 is:
- Gauteng: 252 745
- KwaZulu-Natal: (KZN) 115 020
- Western Cape: 108 402
- Mpumalanga: 66 833
- Limpopo: 61 769
- Eastern Cape: 55 393
- North West: 39 983
- Free State: 33 741
- Northern Cape: 13 862
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Extended hours
Transport Department spokesperson Collen Msibi said officials will be working overtime to clear the backlog.
“Working hours for staff members at the Driving License Card Agency, which is an entity of the Department, will be extended to ensure the reduction of the backlog.
“With the current catch-up plan, updates on the backlog reduction will be provided as and when significant progress is made. However, the backlog reduction is also dependent on the number of orders being received on a daily basis,” Msibi said.
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Drivers licence validity
Earlier this month, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenhage told The Citizen they had asked Transport Minister Barbara Creecy to extend the validity of driver’s licences to 10 years.
He said this was introduced in the past, but was reversed for no valid reason.
“This is a norm around the country, and this is something that was introduced by Dipuo Peters, the minister of transport, in 2013, and for some strange reason, very quietly, they undid that decision, and it was the right decision at the time. They’ve never explained why they reversed that decision.”
Duvenhage added that the country needs to use technology for driver’s licences.
“We need to be able to integrate our driver’s licences with a virtual driver’s licence on your phone, linked to your ID card. There are so many things we can do,” Duvenhage said.
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