The Department of Transport and its entities' silence on the unexplained delay in replacing the driver’s license card machine, their failure to extend the validity of the cards and the questionable license transaction fees is unacceptable. 

What are they hiding? Adv. Stefanie Fick, Executive Director of OUTA’s accountability division, says OUTA is concerned that the secrecy is due to problematic activities. “We have, for the past few years, tried to engage meaningfully with transport entities, but to no avail,” says Fick.

The entities involved are the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and the Driving License Card Account (DLCA).

OUTA wants answers about the following:

• Why has the procurement for the new driving license card machine been delayed for more than a year?

• Why has the department decided not to extend the validity of driving licenses despite the cumbersome system?

• Does the card machine procurement plan rely on retaining the five-year validity period for the cards?

• Why won’t the department explain how it calculates the fees it charges for licenses and how these funds are distributed?

Based on research on international best practices in 32 countries, OUTA has been calling for the extension of the validity of the driving license cards from the current five years to 10 years since September 2020. (Note that the license itself never expires, only the card.) Extending the validity period is not difficult either – it merely requires a change in regulations, which the Minister of Transport can enact by publishing updated regulations in the Government Gazette.

OUTA believes that extending the card validity period will save the public money and reduce time wasted by an inefficient bureaucracy riddled with corruption. We find the RTMC’s reasons for dismissing the requested extension ludicrous. 

We are also very concerned about the delay in the procurement of the badly needed new driving license card machine by the DLCA – the same entity responsible for producing the cards.  

The tender has been advertised and withdrawn repeatedly in recent years, with the most recent tender issued on 8 March 2023. It still has not been awarded. 

It is highly problematic that the tender process is shrouded in uncertainty and a lack of transparency since the procurement of this machine is of utmost importance to South Africa. 

The country has only one machine to print license cards, and it broke down in November 2021 and was out of service until January 2022. This resulted in a backlog of 639 000 cards. The machine is no longer manufactured (impacting the availability of spare parts and technical expertise), hence a new one is needed. 

OUTA also wants the RTMC to explain how the transaction fees it charges on various types of licenses (see here and here) are calculated and how the revenue is distributed.

“The public has a right to clarity on these fees. When government entities generate excessive revenue, it encourages corruption and maladministration. However, when public bodies are accountable and transparent about how they collect and use public money, it creates a culture of confidence in government. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true,” says Fick.

In November 2022, OUTA submitted a request in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to the RTMC asking for information on the composition of the fees, but the RTMC refused this request and the subsequent internal appeal.

OUTA subsequently filed a complaint with the Information Regulator over the RTMC refusal. In April 2024, the Information Regulator informed OUTA that its preliminary findings indicated that the RTMC “incorrectly refused” access. A final decision is awaited.

More information

More on OUTA’s work on the driving license card validity extension is available here and on the license fees is here.

OUTA has called on government to improve its strategy on road safety. See here.