{"id":652990,"date":"2026-06-09T14:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=652990"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:12:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:12:37","slug":"south-africans-can-say-goodbye-to-car-licence-discs-and-driving-licence-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/652990-south-africans-can-say-goodbye-to-car-licence-discs-and-driving-licence-cards.html","title":{"rendered":"South Africans can say goodbye to car licence discs and driving licence cards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Road Traffic Management Corporation of South Africa (RTMC) is planning to move away from physical vehicle licence discs towards an electronic disc regime relying on number plate recognition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entity, which falls under the Department of Transport, reported the development during an update on its Annual Performance Plan to a meeting of the National Council of Provinces on 3 June 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large portion of the session focused on corruption at licensing centres, where investigations confirmed syndicates involving traffic officers, examiners, and members of the South African Police Service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigations found that fraudulent driving licences were being sold for prices ranging from R3,500 to R14,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RTMC programme management office and strategy general manager Motselesi Juma also explained that the entity had observed widespread use of fraudulent licence discs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue was especially rife in the public transport and freight logistics sectors, where operators would register only 10 of 100 trucks or buses and use manipulated duplicates for the remaining 90.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To combat this fraud, Juma said the RTMC was modernising its systems to move toward a “discless” environment with “gadgets” that can show vehicle registration details by scanning a number plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RTMC would equip its traffic officers with these “e-force” gadgets, which will also be used for logging traffic fines, replacing the current physical ticket books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It explained that the devices would be needed for the national rollout of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences system, set to begin on 1 July 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RTMC also intended to digitise the driving licence testing and acquisition process to crack down on the illegal sale of licences at DLTCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juma said around 2.8 million of the 13.5 million licence holders in South Africa had registered on the eNatis website, which offers various services, including online licence disc renewals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digitisation a long time coming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Rob Handfield-Jones, Driving.co.za managing director<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The idea to move away from physical licence discs is nothing new. Driving.co.za managing director Rob Handfield-Jones has called for the change for many years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handfield-Jones submitted his recommendations on digital driving licences and licence discs to the transport portfolio committee in 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The driving skills expert told MyBroadband there was no need for analogue documents for licensing, as every vehicle had a VIN and most drivers had fingerprints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The metro departments use real-time Automatic Number Plate Recognition and connections to eNatis at roadblocks to identify vehicles with expired licences or owners who have outstanding fines,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Handfield-Jones noted that many modern smartphones already had biometric sensors, including fingerprint and facial recognition, which could be used for driver identification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that the Natis backend has been digital since 2008. All that was required for fully digital licences and discs was a frontend system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“All that is needed is a system to extend those capabilities to an individual officer context as a system they could access on their phones or tablets.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Presidency, Home Affairs, and communications department plan to roll out digital IDs on the MyMzansi platform with support for digital driving licences before the end of 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home Affairs recently gazetted the digital ID policy, which sets out exactly how the new official form of identification will function. The ID will be optional and function alongside the physical smart ID. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willing adopters of the system will be able to use their biometrics and the MyMzansi app on their smartphone to verify their identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, the plan is to add support for securely storing various key civic services documents on the app, including driving licence cards, marriage and birth certificates, and firearm licences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transport department previously planned its own standalone digital driving licence app, a plan that Handfield-Jones criticised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Road Traffic Management Corporation has confirmed a plan to phase out vehicle licence discs due to widespread fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":653091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[104398,10706,101301,96442,16822,105797,23393,19288,34711,70824,76706,75622,105798],"class_list":["post-652990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-car-licence-discs","tag-department-of-transport","tag-digital-driving-licences","tag-driving-licence-cards","tag-fines","tag-motselesi-juma","tag-national-council-of-provinces-ncop","tag-road-traffic-management-corporation-rtmc","tag-rob-handfield-jones","tag-traffic-officers","tag-vehicle-licence-disc","tag-vehicle-licence-discs","tag-vehicle-licences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652990"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653119,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652990\/revisions\/653119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}