Department of Transport says staff will work extra hours to deal with the backlog
South Africa (12 May 2025) — The Department of Transport says that the country’s sole printing machine for driving licence cards, stalled since 4 January, is working again. There is a backlog of over 747,000 waiting to be printed.
Department spokesperson Collen Msibi told GroundUp the machine can print between 14,000 to 19,000 cards during a 14-hour shift.
“We are cautiously optimistic given the age of the machine,” he said.
“This means working hours for staff members at the Driving Licence Card Agency… will be extended to ensure the reduction of the backlog,” the department said in a statement. New orders were being added to the backlog and updates would be provided, the department said.
“That’s great news, but my question is, when is it going to break down again?” Wayne Duvenage, the CEO of Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), said.
According to a previous statement by the department, the current printing machine has had almost 160 breakdowns in its approximately 25 years of operation.
Duvenage called on the Minister of Transport to put out a new tender for a card machine and to ensure transparency and efficiency in the process.
“It doesn’t have to take too long, so that we can modernise this whole process.”
The tender was awarded to a company in September last year. After a report by the Auditor-General found non-compliance with the required procurement processes, the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, called for a court order to block the awarding of the contract.
“Currently, we are more invested in finding an interim solution in order to address the issue of reliance on the current machine,” Msibi said. “The interim solution will be a better solution while we wait for the court decision.”
Duvenage also called for the validity of driving licences in the country to be extended from five to ten years.
“It is something that our government has wanted to do and actually gazetted a while ago in 2013, but reversed for some odd reason.”
He said that if this could be done while the current machine is working and the tender for a new machine is out, the long–standing problem with licences could be solved.
The department’s statement said the backlog of outstanding cards at the beginning of May was:
- Gauteng 252,745
- KwaZulu-Natal 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
“We have too many unlicensed drivers on our roads contributing to road crashes,” Johan Jonck from Arrive Alive said. “When the system functions effectively, our traffic officers can focus on checking for valid driving licences and removing these … violations from our roads.”
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