Driver’s licence renewal grace period extended
Transport minister Fikile Mbalula has extended the grace period for driving licences that expired before 31 March 2022 to 15 April 2022.
Mbalula published the 15-day extension in the Government Gazette on Thursday:
All learner’s licences, driving licence cards, temporary driving licences and professional driving permits that expire during the period that commenced from 26 March 2020 up to and including 31 March 2022 are deemed to be valid and their validity periods are extended for further grace period ending on 15 April 2022.
Update: On 1 April, Mbalula retracted this notice and published a new one that amended the expiry period to 26 March 2020 – 31 August 2021. Licences that expired between 1 September 2021 and 31 March 2022 do not benefit from the extended grace period.
The minister postponed a media briefing scheduled for today, citing Cabinet commitments.
Mbalula’s announcement comes after the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) warned that South Africa would see a spike in traffic fines and rejected car insurance claims unless government extended the grace period.
According to the AA, hundreds of thousands of motorists holding expired licences had not yet applied for renewals. Submitting their applications would add to the backlog, which the Driver’s Licence Card Account (DCLA) is already struggling to reduce.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse’s (Outa) legal head, Stefanie Fick, also warned the government that it “should not start a war with citizens that it cannot win” over the driver’s licence renewal deadline.
“Outa is considering a legal opinion that may lead to another civil disobedience campaign,” she cautioned.
Fick explained that failure to extend the renewal deadline could result in enforcement extorting bribes from motorists.
“The state cannot simply ignore this problem, as it will leave motorists at the mercy of overzealous or corrupt law enforcement officers who may use this as an opportunity to extort bribes from the motoring public,” she said.
“These problems are largely due to difficulties in securing bookings through the online booking system forced onto motorists.”
Mbalula had implemented a grace period for licences expiring between 26 March 2020 and 31 August 2021 due to constraints of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He subsequently extended it to 31 March 2022 and was adamant that he would not adjust the deadline again.
The grace period was intended to help get through a backlog of 1.2 million expired driver’s licence cards, but by February 2022, the logjam had reached 2.1 million cards.
South Africa’s only driver’s licence printing machine broke down in November 2021 and was sent to Germany for repairs, exacerbating the situation.
Mbalula’s solution was to increase production when it returned from Germany, saying that it could produce 400,000 cards a month to clear the backlog by September.
However, the Department of Transport (DoT) revealed earlier this month that the backlog had not been reduced and that 43% of motorists with expired licences had yet to submit their renewal applications.
“The total backlog of driving licences that expires by 31 March 2022, stands at 2.1 million nationwide,” the department stated.
“Nationally, more than 1.2 million licences out of a total of 2.8 million expired licences are yet to be renewed.”
“The department was requested to look at alternative ways to deal with the driver’s licence backlogs such as extended hours,” it added.
Motorists can receive a further three-month grace period from the date their licences expire, provided they renew before the expiry date.
However, the transport department said it only expects to get through its licence card renewal backlog six months from now — in September 2022.
Therefore, it would appear that even motorists who had followed the government’s instructions and applied before 31 March would still need to fork out to get a temporary licence.
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