Good news for anyone applying for a new driver’s licence card in South Africa

The Department of Transport has announced that the driving licence card production backlog from last year’s printing machine breakdown has finally been cleared.

This was revealed in a statement published by the department on 7 January 2026.

“On 9 December 2025, the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) agency cleared the backlog of driving licence cards that were outstanding for printing following the breakdown,” it said.

“As a result, from 8 May to 8 December 2025, 2,239,456 driving licence cards were printed by the DLCA.”

The backlog was caused by a breakdown of South Africa’s single licence card printing machine in February 2025, and it remained offline until 8 May 2025 for repairs.

This resulted in a backlog of over 750,000 cards accumulating, and the department was working to reduce this backlog while maintaining pace with continued demand.

Following the machine’s return to service, the department released a statement detailing the card backlogs for each province, with Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape having the largest backlogs.

The backlog per province as of 8 May 2025 was as follows:

• Gauteng — 252,746
• KwaZulu-Natal — 115,020
• Western Cape — 108,402
• Mpumalanga — 66,833
• Limpopo — 61,769
• Eastern Cape — 55,393
• North West — 39,983
• Free State — 33,741
• Northern Cape — 13,862
• Total cards in backlog — 747,749

“This means working hours for staff members at the Driving Licence Card Account, which is an entity of the department, will be extended to ensure the reduction of the backlog,” the department said.

“With the current catch-up plan, updates on backlog reduction will be provided as and when significant progress is made.”

Interim solutions

To resolve the backlog, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy revealed during the department’s budget vote speech in July 2025, that her department had made a deal to outsource driving licence card production with the Government Printing Works.

The GPW is the Home Affairs-run government entity responsible for printing South Africa’s smart ID cards, passports, birth certificates, and other critical documents.

“To ensure we have a backup solution, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government Printing Works,” she said.

“We expect that this backup solution will be able to print driver’s license cards within three months.”

However, the department failed to meet this goal, and on 7 January 2026, along with the announcement of the resolution of the backlog, it was revealed that the State Security Agency had approved the GPW’s prototype driving licence card design.

“The establishment of the network connection between the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and GPW was successfully tested,” it added.

The department outlined that the network connection allowed the transfer of data and files required by the GPW to produce driving licence cards.

“A Cabinet process will soon be undertaken to seek Cabinet approval of the prototype card design.”