South Africa has made progress in fixing its driving license card backlog but some people still have doubts. The Department of Transport says the number of pending cards dropped from 756227 in September to 336,028 in October.
The problems started in February when the only license printing machine in the country broke down. This old machine is over 25 years old & has broken more than 160 times before. This meant many drivers had to wait months to get their cards.
The machine started working again in May. Since then workers have been printing cards day & night. They want to fix the backlog by December so drivers can have their cards by Christmas.
The government is also working on a backup plan. They made a deal with Home Affairs to let the Government Printing Works make driving licenses too. This should start in October. But not everyone thinks these fixes will work. AfriForum a civil rights group thinks this could turn into another failed system like e-tolls or TV licenses.
Louis Boshoff from AfriForum says people might stop following the rules if getting a license stays hard.
He points to TV licenses where 86% of people don’t pay anymore. This costs the SABC R4.3 billion each year. E-tolls had the same problem. Started in 2013 many drivers refused to pay and the government ended the system in April 2024.
The government hopes their new plans will work better but some remain skeptical about the future of driving licenses in South Africa.
