Digital driver’s licences are coming for South Africa – Here’s why we don’t have them yet

Department of Transport (DoT) spokesperson Collen Msibi has divulged that electronic driver’s licences (eDL) are still on the agenda for South Africa.

However, he admitted that they won’t be introduced any time soon largely due to budgetary constraints.

“We are certainly looking at a digital licence in the outer years, so that’s a future project,” Msibi told Newzroom Afrika.

“The simple answer to you right now is ching ching, money. There’s difficulty with [eDLs] because it’s quite a huge project that you’re looking at.”

Msibi continues to explain that the infrastructure needed to support eDLs, such as licence scanning devices for every police officer, is expensive and not within budget for the DoT at this very moment as it’s actively busy with the rollout of the country’s new physical licence cards.

“You can imagine the kind of investment into the infrastructure when you do that kind of work, it’s quite big,” he said.

“[eDLs are] something that we are looking into for the future, but for now, we believe that what is affordable for the country is what we’re doing currently.”

A long time coming, and a while still to go

The idea of eDLs was first mooted in 2022 by the former transport minister Fikile Mbalula, who said that the new physical licence cards for South Africa would incorporate smart technologies that would pave the way for the introduction of digital driver’s licences.

At the time, he said these electronic documents would make their debut in the 2024/25 financial year, a deadline that Msibi has now veritably debunked.

While the excuse of cost is a reasonable one for not introducing eDLs within the original timeframe set out by Mbalula, industry experts believe there is another reason for the DoT’s sluggishness to establish such a system.

Rob Handfield-Jones, road safety expert and managing director of driving skills company Driving.co.za, believes that eDLs are being fought against behind the scenes by the powers that be for one simple flaw – they don’t make enough money.

“There is no technological or practical obstacle to digital licensing and enforcement,” said Handfield-Jones.

“Rather, the problem is the Road Traffic Management Corporation’s (RTMC) refusal to give up the revenue streams that go with analogue document production.”

He contends that the infrastructure to support eDLs is already available in South Africa and that the virtual documents can be integrated into the country’s licensing regime virtually seamlessly.

The original Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act maintained that every traffic officer in the country must carry a digital terminal that is capable of scanning the barcodes on driver’s licence cards, and by extension, those on a screen.

Although vaguely enforced, the Aarto Act is currently in effect in the municipalities of Tshwane and Johannesburg and is intended to roll out to the rest of the country over the coming year.

These digital terminals referred to in Aarto could have enabled automatic number plate recognition and a central database contact for verifying the details of eDL holders, said Handfield-Jones.

Likewise, he said that most modern smartphones can perform this function, even those at the bottom end of the price spectrum, should the authorities be worried about cost.

“It’s nonsense, but the government has somehow been permitted to advance a narrative that a driving licence is different to almost every other official document,” he said.

“This is because licence card renewals are a money-making racket.”

In a similar vein, Handfield-Jones said there’s no reason that vehicle licence discs should be physical documents, either.

“After all, vehicles have a permanent VIN number marking, and are required to have a metal number plate permanently affixed to the vehicle; what need do we still have of a paper licence disc?” he said.