35 taxi drivers found without a licence every day in South Africa’s biggest city

The Gauteng Traffic Inspectorate (GTI) has ramped up its efforts to enforce traffic laws and vehicle safety standards across the province’s metros.

The GTI, which consists of 96 officers, was formed in June this year to address issues with Gauteng’s road transport landscape, such as reckless driving, traffic infringements, unroadworthy vehicles, and violence within the local minibus taxi industry.

As reported by The Citizen, the GTI conducted operations over the past two weeks, from 29 September to 12 October, recording hundreds of traffic law compliance infringements in the process.

During this time, the unit found 496 minibus taxi drivers on the roads who did not have a valid driver’s licence, working out to roughly 35 cases per day.

In addition to driver’s licences, 234 taxi drivers were operating without a vehicle licence disc, and 189 taxis were discontinued for non-compliance.

The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport issued a statement on Wednesday, voicing its concerns over a “troubling pattern” with regards to non-compliance among minibus taxi operators.

The department confirmed that it will continue to conduct weekly operations as part of a long-term strategy to enforce traffic law compliance within the public transport industry/

“We will continue to crack down on non-compliance, illegal operations, and criminal activities that threaten the safety and integrity of our transport system,” said transport MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela.

“The safety of our commuters and the integrity of our licensing system remain non-negotiable priorities for this government.”

During the same two-week period, approximately 1,600 manual infringement notices were issued, and another 2,000 were recorded electronically by the GTI.

Driver’s licence renewals

Obtaining a new driver’s licence card is easier said than done right now, as the Department of Transport (DoT) is still working to clear the backlog that began several months ago when the nation’s only licence printer broke down.

The printer broke down in February and was only restored in May, leading to a renewal backlog that peaked at 756,227 orders.

Thankfully, this number dropped to 336,028 by mid-September, as the Driving Licence Card Account has been running shifts non-stop for 24 hours a day to clear the outstanding requests and resume normal operations.

Based on this level of progress, the DoT believes it will be able to clear the backlog by December.