Thousands of motorists are currently driving with expired licences which have those behind the wheel worried.
The Department of Transport (DoT) has assured motorists that the broken driver’s licence machine is being repaired and that an “interim solution” will be available to alleviate the massive backlog of drivers’ licences.
Thousands of motorists are currently driving with expired licences which have those behind the wheel worried.
Broken machine
This comes after South Africa’s only driving licence card printer broke down yet again.
It is understood that the machine had been out of order since January creating a massive backlog in driver licences and that a few to no cards had 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.
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Interim solution
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy’s spokesperson Collen Msibi told The Citizen the driver’s licence machine broke down in February.
“We are in the process of repairing the machine, so we are hoping that’s in the next 2 to 3 weeks, it should be up and running, we aiming for mid-May.
“But in the meantime, we’re also working on an interim solution, which is going to be outside of this old machine that we have as you know it’s been there for since 1998. SO, we are working on an interim solution which is going to be announced by the minister in due course,” Msibi said.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has called on the Transport Department to issue temporary drivers licences free of charge.
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‘Serious situation’
Outa CEO Wayne Duvenhage told The Citizen, the situation is “very serious” and that Creecy must provide relief for drivers with expired licences.
“There’s a couple of options she should take. The first thing is that she should allow all temporary licenses to be issued free of charge by the licensing authorities or secondly put out the gazette if need be that all licenses that are expiring should be given at least one year reprieve in other words if a traffic officer stop you and your license is supposed to renewed on 1 January 2025, well they should extend that automatically to 2026.”
‘Free licences’
However, Msibi said there is a cost that goes into the production of the temporary licenses, and Creecy would be the best person to comment on the matter.
“But from their technical point of view and from an administration point of view there is a cost involved that goes into the production of the of the temporary license, so we may to then decide where does that money comes from if people are not paying for their temporary licences.”
Validity
Duvenhage said they asked Creecy to extend the validity of drivers licenses to 10 years.
He said this was introduced in the past, but was reversed for no valid reason.
This a norm around the country and this is something that was introduced by Dipuo Peter 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 reverse that decision,” Duvenhage said.
“So we’ve done research and said Fikile Mbalula and he agreed and in fact, he had agreed to extend it not to ten but eight years and for some strange reason the person that followed on, Sindisiwe Chikunga (new transport minister) reversed that decision.
“So now we’ve asked Barbara Creasey, please, you know, let’s exercise some sanity here and have this issue sorted out because that would take away this backlog or immediately,” Duvenhage said.
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Expired licences
Msibi shared advice for motorists who had applied before and after their drivers licences expired.
“Those who applied for the renewal of their cards before the expiry date of their current license cards. What they need to do when they driving, they should keep in their possession, a receipt, which is proof that they applied, but secondly, they should keep their old expiry license cards.
“So that would assist them in terms of not being penalized on the road, but we also encourage them to apply for the temporary licenses. Those who applied after the expiry date of their cut day, therefore, need to apply for a temporary license,” Msibi said.
‘Be courteous’
Duvenhage said traffic officers are aware of the fact that there is a backlog and the machine is broken.
“Obviously, speak courteously and nicely to the traffic officers, explain the situation, and they shouldn’t be a problem. But the sad thing is that you’re inconvenienced for having to go get a temporary license at your cost and what we’re saying is the minister should be putting out a statement to all licensing authorities to say this is a problem please understand that the people have applied that should not be held liable for not having their license.”
Technology
Duvenhage added that the country need to use technology for drivers licences.
“We need to be able to integrate on our drivers licenses with a virtual drivers license on your phone linked to your ID card and there’s so many things we can do.
“We still operate in a very archaic paper based under developed a system and then we really need a Department of transport to modernize and and deal with the gross maladministration, inaptitude and corruption that is taking place in these departments where a lot of money is made and a lot of money is misspent,” Duvenhage said.
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