- The waiting period for driving licence card renewals or applications will now only take 10 working days.
- This has been reduced from 58 working days due to the cleared backlog.
- 1.2 million South Africans are driving with expired driving licence cards.
South Africa's driving licence system seems to be moving in a positive direction with improvements being set in place.
According to the transport department, the Covid-19 pandemic had caused an extreme backlog, but this had since been cleared earlier in July.
On 2 September, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced the government had approved new driving licence cards for South Africa.
He said the waiting period for driving licence card renewals had also been significantly reduced.
Mbalula claimed the waiting period after applying for a new driving licence card would now take 10 working days to process instead of 58.
Rollout for the new driving licence cards will begin in November 2023, along with the transition period for the old cards to be phased out by 2029.
These announcements were made at a media briefing at the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) offices in Midrand on 2 September.
The Driving Licence Centre Account (DLCA) has produced more than two million cards to clear the backlog.
READ | New driving licence cards approved for South Africa, rollout set for November 2023
"We have successfully reduced the waiting period for a driving licence card from 58 working days in April 2022 to 10 working days in July 2022," said Mbalula.
However, many Wheels24 readers were still battling with driving licence renewals, according to numerous emails we have received.
Many have been sent back and forth to driving licence testing centres (DLTCs) with fingerprint or photo problems after applying for their new cards.
This has resulted in motorists sitting with expired temporary driving licences as their new cards have still not been processed.
Many have also been fined despite applying for new cards.
Mbalula said the department remained concerned about the high number of people who have yet to renew their expired driving licences; this number currently stands at 1.2 million.
"The implications of this is that we have a sizeable number of motorists driving without a valid driving licence on our roads. This goes against our efforts to arrest carnage on our roads.
"One of the most significant contributors to this carnage is driver competence. We will therefore up the ante in our law enforcement efforts to bring to book these wayward motorists who have no regard for the law or the safety of others on the road," he added.
According to the department, 67% of those who have not renewed their driving licences were between the ages of 25 and 50, 15% between 50 and 60, and 17% above 60.
"The most compliant group are those 25 years and younger, who account for only 1% of drivers who have yet to renew their driving licences. Our investigations have revealed that the vast majority of those who are not renewing their licences have infringements.
"We are introducing a smart enrolment solution to improve the service to motorists and reduce turnaround times at driving licence testing centres [DLTCs]," said the minister.
This solution has been successfully piloted at the Waterfall and Eco-Park Centurion DLTCs.
Gauteng will be the first to go live in March 2023, before full deployment to other provinces.
According to the RTMC, the Waterfall and Eco-Park Centurion driving licence testing centres were cashless and only operated with card facilities.
These two DLTCs are also open seven days a week, from 07:00 to 21:00.