Motoring7.08.2023

Legal challenge against South Africa’s 5-year driver’s licence cards

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria heard Afriforum’s legal application calling for the scrapping of the five-year validity periods on South Africa’s driver’s licence cards on Monday, 7 August 2023.

The civil rights organisation has dragged the Minister of Transport and Road Traffic Management Corporation to court over the expiry of licence cards, which it believes is unlawful and irrational.

DaniĆ«l Eloff, director at the law firm Hurter Spies, which represents Afriforum in the matter, has argued the regulations limiting the validity period of the cards conflicted with the National Road Traffic Act (NRTA), which determines that South Africa’s driver’s licences can never expire.

In short, Afriforum argues the validity periods are:

  1. Inconsistent with the provisions of the NRTA, which makes no reference to or provision for a “driving licence card” that is valid for a period less than the prescribed period of validity of a driving licence.
  2. Inconsistent with NRT Regulation 101(2)(a), in which the Transport minister has exercised his power to prescribe the period of validity of a driving licence as indefinite.
  3. Not related to any power of the Transport Minister to regulate the operation of a vehicle on a public road, and also not related to the better carrying out of the provision or the achievements of the NRTA.Ā 
  4. Unreasonable and irrational, in that there is no apparent reason for the Transport Minister prescribing a five-year period of validity. Ā 

Afriforum also wants the court to declare that fines and penalties related to driver’s licence cards only apply to those who drive without a card or those whose licences were suspended or cancelled.

Alternatively, Afriforum wants a section of the NRTA which gives unrestricted powers to the transport minister to determine the validity period of driver’s licence cards to be declared unconstitutional and invalid.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) previously told MyBroadband it does not believe that Afriforum’s interpretation of the law concerning card validity periods was correct.

“We believe that if you read the NRTA and the regulations together, it is clear that the intention was to create a process for a driving licence card, as proof that you have a licence (that does not expire), to be renewed every 5 years,” said Outa executive for accountability, Stefanie Fick.

“It is accepted practice worldwide that licences or licence cards must be renewed.”

Nonetheless, Fick said Afriforum “definitely” had an “interesting” argument and that she wished them good luck in the case.

“Due to the government’s inability to regulate their own administrative processes effectively, they are forcing civil society to take matters into their own hands in an attempt to fix it,” Fick said.

“Although a change in the NRTA may clear up some ambiguities, we do not believe that it will fix the variety of problems.”

“We need effective processes and systems that work for the people. It should not be a money-making scheme.”

Outa supports the extension of driver’s licence card validity periods to 10 years, but Afriforum maintains that under the current laws, even that limitation should not be allowed.

Former transport minister Fikile Mbalula has publicly stated that the country’s new licence cards, which are expected to be fully introduced before the end of March 2024, will be valid for eight years.

Fikile Mbalula

However, no official legislation has been published that confirms this, and Mbalula was succeeded by Sindisiwe Chikunga after he was voted into the position of ANC Secretary-General at the party’s elective conference in December 2022.

Chikunga recently said her department was submitting the proposal of an eight-year validity period for Cabinet approval.

MyBroadband recently compared South Africa’s card validity period with 30 countries.

We found that 22 had longer validity periods, six were on par with South Africa, and only two had shorter validity periods.

Most countries had either 10 or 15 years of validity, but the two with the lowest number of road deaths per 100,000 people ā€” Switzerland and Singapore ā€” had validity periods up to when the driver turned 65 or 70, respectively.

On the flip side, two of the countries with worst road death rates than South Africa ā€” Kenya and Nigeria ā€” had the shortest renewal periods.

Nevertheless, driver licence validity periods might not directly affect road safety, as other factors ā€” such as speed limits and proper road law enforcement ā€” can play a significant part.

Mbalula himself has previously admitted the 5-year validity period was established because it was believed that the cards would only last that long.

This has evidently proven not to be the case, as many people have pointed out that their expired cards are still in a good state.


Now read: South Africa’s new traffic fine laws will hit Cape Town where it hurts

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