The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has called for the government to halt all license fines issued to motorists immediately.
This call has been made due to the large backlog of unprocessed licenses created by the recent breakdown of South Africa’s only license card printer.
The Department of Transport (DTC) is responsible for resolving this backlog and has noted that it would take around four months to clear it, assuming the license card printer remains operational.
OUTA has estimated that there could be as many as 690,000 cards in the backlog, and with new licence card applications being made daily, the issue is unlikely to be resolved swiftly.
This has left many motorists without a license long enough for them to be eligible for fines despite having followed the law.
Stefanie Fick, OUTA’s Advocate, expressed that this is an unfair situation for South Africans, who are now being punished for the government’s failures.
“Motorists who followed the rules should not be punished for government delays because the state cannot deliver the cards on time. We also want clear public communication and instructions to traffic officials to prevent unfair treatment. Let us see the government take accountability and treat the public fairly,” she said.
To address the issue, she has suggested to the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, to waive the fines and the need for a temporary licence until the backlog is cleared.
This would mean that motorists who have already applied for renewals won’t receive fines for their expired license and won’t need to acquire a temporary license.
Along with this, she recommended that the validity period for licences be extended to 10 years from the current five-year period.
This will help the DTC deal with the backlog by reducing the incoming applications.
She added that acquiring new or more card printing machines would be an excellent option for relieving the backlog and increasing the reliability of the system.
Card printer issues
South Africa’s sole card printer has been experiencing costly breakdowns for several years, with it being out of operation for a total of 129 days since the start of the 2022/23 financial year.
These frequent breakdowns have ballooned maintenance costs and the need for paid overtime.
According to Creecy, who responded to enquiries made in the Parliamentary Q&A, the breakdowns and overtime have cost South African taxpayers over R16 million.
While the card printer is currently back in operation, the probability of more lengthy breakdowns is high due to its age.
A report commissioned by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) in 2022 found that the license card printing machine should have been replaced in 2009.
Tender advertising to secure a new machine has been done to address the issue with Idemia securing the tender in August 2024.
However, not long after awarding it, Creecy announced she’d requested an audit by the AGSA into the procurement of the tender.
This audit concluded that Idemia had failed to meet “key bid technical requirements” with issues such as non-compliance within the prescribed procurement processes due to inadequate budget analysis, inconsistent application scoring, and failure to evaluate bids correctly.
Following this, Creecy confirmed that before a new machine can be secured, a declaratory order must be sought from a competent court on the tender.
This would cancel the tender awarded to Idemia and allow for new applications.
For now, however, South Africans will have to continue bearing with the current, unreliable machine.
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