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Civil rights group AfriForum has taken South Africa’s 5-year driving licence card renewal period to court, challenging the constitutionality of the laws.
The matter was heard in the High Court in Pretoria this week, challenging the renewal period, which it says has caused dysfunction in the country.
“The court challenge happens within the context of the government’s only license printing machine breaking down again for the second time in less than a year, once again causing major delays in the printing of license cards,” the group said.
The group is demanding that, among other things, the court issue a declaratory order stating that the five-year validity period of driving licenses is unconstitutional and that all fines issued for expired licenses are unconstitutional.
According to Ernst van Zyl, Campaign Officer for Strategy and Content at AfriForum, there is no basis in law for the renewal period to be set at five years.
“AfriForum’s legal team exposed major flaws and inconsistencies in the National Road Traffic Act and regulations, in court. The legislation, for example, does not explicitly state that motorists must apply for new license cards upon expiry,” he said.
Speaking to 702, Van Zyl added that the act itself is vague, contradictory and inconsistent around the issue, which necessitated the court proceedings.
On the matter of constitutionality, he said that this arises in the context of the dysfunction that the renewal period has caused – because of the state-imposed renewal period, millions of motorists are forced to renew their licences when the transport offices are incapable of processing them due to machine faults and other administrative issues.
As a result, motorists cannot get licences or are forced to break the law to get around to work or go about their lives. This in turn leads to steep fines against them, adding undue financial stress.
Judgement in the case was reserved.
Afriforum said that extending the licence validity period to 10 or even 15 years would go a long way in mitigating the backlogs and annual numbers of licence renewal processing; however, scrapping the renewal entirely would be the top prize, it said
Instead, the group argued that a simple eye test or other types of roadworthy tests could be done through the government and private sector to achieve the same thing.
Extension is coming
While Afriforum is fighting for the renewal period to be declared unlawful and unconstitutional, the Department of Transport has already confirmed that plans are underway to extend the period.
Following on from the promises made by former minister Fikile Mbalula that a new period would be presented to cabinet, current minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said last week that this is still the plan.
Despite seemingly not making any progress in getting the proposal before cabinet since late 2022, she confirmed this would be done soon.
The plan is currently to extend the renewal period to eight years. Stakeholders have welcomed the proposal, but say it does not do enough, and should be extended to 10 years minimum.
On top of the validity of the cards, plans are also underway to introduce new driving licence cards altogether.
At last reporting, the new driving licence card is planned to start its pilot in November 2023.
While there are some nuanced visual changes coming to the card, the big changes will be in the form of new technologies and improved security features.
According to the Department of Transport (DOT) – following the pilot period – the new driving licences will be launched to the public before the end of the current financial year, putting the launch window sometime before the end of March 2024.
The country’s current driving licence cards have been in use since 1998 and feature a greyscale image of the holder, a signature on the front while displaying a barcode, and their fingerprint on the back as personal security indicators.
According to the DLCA, the new licence will be aligned closer to international practices, with the new card also allowing for the incorporation of new technologies.
The new driving licence card will have improved security features, including biometric data, holograms, and watermarks, to reduce fraudulent licences and improve road safety.
The new card will also be printed by new machines, hopefully putting an end to delays and backlogs caused by the only machine for the old cards breaking or being shut down for maintenance.
Read: New driving licences coming soon to South Africa – these are the big changes
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