New information about broken driving licence card machine

The Department of Transport (DoT) has confirmed that the country’s only driving licence card printer has been broken down since February 2025 and may take several more weeks to repair.

DoT spokesperson Collen Msibi confirmed these details in recent feedback to MyBroadband.

“The Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) is liaising with the sole supplier in France to repair equipment that has malfunctioned and resulted in the machine breakdown,” Msibi said.

“The Department is exploring various interim solutions to sustain the operations of the current machine, given its age.”

Msibi said the repair could be done in two weeks.

The explanation comes after the City of Cape Town complained that it had not received a single licence card for applications by its residents since the start of the year.

The typical waiting time for a licence card following an application is about six weeks, which suggests the breakdown may have happened in early February.

Even if the department manages to have the printer up and running again according to its current timeline, it will be one of the printer’s longest breakdowns in recent years.

The last prolonged downtime lasted from 7 November 2021 to 26 January 2022 — about two and a half months.

The department has not provided a specific date when the latest breakdown occurred.

However, even if it had occurred at the end of February, the breakdown would have lasted over two months by the estimated time of repair.

The current backlog in licence card issuances is unknown.

With the last prolonged breakdown, nearly 700,000 card renewals were delayed, extending an existing backlog caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to a peak of 1.3 million cards.

The printer produces an average of 2.85 million cards per year — or 237,500 per month. That means the backlog in card issuances could be closing in on one million cards by next month.

Printer as old as Google

South Africa’s sole driving licence card printer has been used since 1998, the same year that Google was founded.

A report compiled for the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) found that the machine should have been replaced in 2009.

As of June 2024, it had already suffered 159 breakdowns. Over the last five years, the breakdowns have cost the DLCA R21 million to repair.

While the DLCA has appointed French firm Idemia to supply three new machines and modern smart driving licence cards, the Auditor-General uncovered irregularities in the tender process.

That led to transport minister Barbara Creecy asking the courts to cancel the tender. These developments will mean motorists should expect the old printer to stick around for some time.

Fortunately, people who have applied for their licence card renewal are afforded a three-month grace period from their card’s expiry date, during which they may not be fined.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has recommended that motorists keep receipts for their renewal applications in their cars to present to traffic officers if pulled over.

For those whose grace periods have lapsed, a temporary paper licence can be issued on the spot.

These documents are valid for six months, which should be more than long enough for the repairs to be concluded.

However, some motorists may be upset that they have to incur additional costs for a temporary document due to no fault on their part.

The latest incident may reignite calls for an extension of the driving licence card renewal period, which is another recommendation in the RTMC’s report.

The extension enjoys support of several civil action groups — including Outa and Afriforum — while driving safety expert Rob Handfield-Jones has called for expiry dates to fall away.