Driver’s licence crisis in South Africa

The South African government has been unable to provide a long-term solution to the country’s driver’s licence crisis, with the machine used to print the licence cards regularly breaking down. 

The latest breakdown lasted over three months, from 5 February to 8 May, resulting in a backlog of over 750,000 cards. 

Gauteng alone had over 252,000 cards in its backlog, with both KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape having over 100,000 cards waiting to be printed. 

The Department of Transport assured South Africans that it would push hard, including making its staff work longer hours, to reduce the backlog. 

However, a major issue is that the department receives thousands of new applications on an average working day, adding to the backlog. 

With a maximum production capacity of 14,000 to 19,000 cards in a 14-hour shift, it would thus take 40 to 53 days to clear that backlog, excluding the addition of any new card applications.

This breakdown and the resulting backlog are only one of many in a long line, with the printing machine breaking down 159 times in its 26 years of operation. 

Currently, driver’s licence cards are produced by the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA), which forms part of the Department of Transport. 

The DLCA still relies on one very old machine to produce all the country’s driving licence cards.

The Department of Transport has justified having only one printer to enable it to strictly limit who can print licence cards to avoid corruption and fraud. 

Former Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said the current driver’s licence card printer was “obsolete and prone to constant breakdown”.

Her predecessor, Fikile Mbalula, said in 2022 that revamping and modernising the printing machine system was the solution to the debacle.

However, a viable solution is yet to be implemented, with the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) saying that the only question is when the machine will break down again. 

“This old card machine is prone to regular breakdowns and is bound to break down again. It is also seriously lacking in modern security features,” advocate Stefanie Fick, OUTA Executive Director, said.

The machine was slated to be replaced in 2009, but it has not been replaced. It has operated since 1998 and will continue to be relied upon for the foreseeable future. 

Solutions on the table 

Fick explained that there have been multiple solutions on the table to ease the burden on the existing machine, replace it, or even do away with physical cards. 

OUTA has repeatedly called for a new machine to be procured, for improved transparency in that procurement process, and for the validity of the cards to be doubled from the existing five years to 10 years. 

This solution appears to be obvious and has been tried before by the government, but it has been stuck in an extended procurement process. 

The Cabinet even approved a plan in August 2022 to acquire a new printer to produce a fresh driving licence card with enhanced security features. 

A new printer was set to be acquired for these new driving licence cards with a three-year phased rollout from 2023 to 2026.

However, these deadlines came and went without any sight of the new printer or driving licence cards. South Africans still suffer from printing machine breakdowns and long delays.

Fick said that the DLCA has tried to procure a machine for years but has repeatedly cancelled and reissued the tender. 

OUTA asked the department why it has failed to implement any of the solutions proposed, particularly the extension of the validity period for licence cards. 

The organisation said it wanted to know whether this refusal was linked to the DLCA’s looming contract for a new card printing machine. 

On 8 August 2024, the DLCA awarded the tender for the new machine to Idemia Identity and Security South Africa for R898.6 million. 

A month later, OUTA identified several irregularities in the procurement process and called for the tender to be overturned. 

On 5 March 2025, Minister Creecy announced that an Auditor-General investigation had found irregularities in the tender process and that she had instructed her department to lodge a high court application for a declaratory order for guidance on how to proceed in the light of the AGSA findings.

The DLCA does not appear to have issued a new tender for the machine.

However, on 10 March 2025, the DLCA issued a tender looking at how to make more money out of the driving licence cards. 

The bid called for “a qualified service provider to review the current cost model and develop a new cost model aligned to a fair recoverable amount for the driver’s license card”.

It said that “the DLCA has finalised the appointment of a service provider to acquire/procure the new driving license card production machine”. 

The DLCA also said that it last adjusted tariffs in January 2014, and that the “DLCA is of the opinion that it is not realising/recovering the total cost to produce the Driver’s licence card”.

This bid closed on 11 April. There is no indication of whether it has been awarded, Fick said.