State road safety entity digs in heels over licence renewals

A government entity responsible for road safety says the requirement for drivers to renew their licences every five years is necessary for road safety.

Amid the growing backlog of driving licence renewals due to Covid-19 disruptions, various groups and opposition parties have called on the government to consider extending the driver’s licence renewal intervals from five years to 10 years.

Briefing parliament’s transport committee on the backlogs, Road Traffic Management Corporation boss Makhosini Msibi said while it will be up to the ministry and department of transport to comment on the issue of revising the renewal intervals, the corporation believes the current regime is necessary.

“Most of the time when people come for their eye test after five years, their [eyesight] is no longer in good shape to be driving without glasses and that’s why the scourge of corruption has been so high at various licensing centres,” Msibi said, suggesting that many are trying to bypass the system. He said the state is working hard to tackle corruption at licensing centres.

DA MP Chris Hunsinger said the requirement to renew a driver’s licence every five years has not contributed to road safety. “Basically it’s an eye test and a form of taxation,” Hunsinger said, referring to the fee a driver has to pay to renew the licence.

OUTA SUGGESTION

He suggested the renewal period be 10 years, which will also help alleviate pressure on licensing centres.

Last year, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) said the state and motorists would benefit from a formal extension of the driver’s licence validity period from the current five years to 10 years.

“This should save the SA consumer and government time and money as well as improve the administration and manageability of the renewal process by the state,” Dominique Msibi, a portfolio manager at Outa, said at the time.

The organisation also called for an efficient online renewal process to reduce traffic at licensing centres.

Msibi said the centres will in the next six weeks improve their systems to make it easier to renew a licence online. The only time one would have to visit a centre will be for an eye test, unless it is done privately.

Licensing centres will also extend operating hours and open on Saturdays to clear the backlog, he said. The government hopes to clear the backlog by the first quarter of next year.

SA is struggling to process a flood of driving licence renewals after the Covid-19 pandemic caused driver’s licence testing centres to shut down for months in 2020 due to lockdown restrictions. Gauteng, the country’s economic hub, has been the worst affected, leaving many motorists and transport operators who rely on their vehicles to earn an income frustrated.

Last week, transport minister Fikile Mbalula extended the grace period for the renewal of expired driver’s licences to end-March 2022 due to the huge backlog.

All learner’s licences, driver’s licence cards, temporary driver’s licences and professional driving permits that expired between March 26 2020 and August 31 2021 are deemed to be valid until the new date.

This follows an earlier grace period extension to August 31, announced in December 2020.

Nationally, 1.2-million licences (42.4%) out of 2.8million expired licences have not yet been renewed, he said.

EXTRA CENTRES

Gauteng has the highest number of non-renewed licences at 437,819, followed by KwaZuluNatal at 195,200 and the Western Cape at 153,901.

Gauteng transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo said the province will add 10 extra driving licence testing centres to tackle the driver’s licence renewal backlog.

In an effort to tackle the backlog, Mamabolo launched the Request a Slot campaign, which is aimed at reducing walk-ins at licensing centres by encouraging people to book appointments online.

“A person who did not request a slot and a person who did not honour their appointment can’t be defined as part of the backlog. We can’t force people to take up their slots. It takes a partnership to work together and properly,” he said.