400 000 Gauteng motorists will be without valid licenses by end March

7 March 2022

The capacity to issue sufficient renewed driver’s licenses in Gauteng is not enough to eradicate the renewal backlog caused by Covid-19.

During the lockdown in 2020 motorists were not able to renew their driver’s licenses and two extensions were granted to renew licenses.

The final deadline for the renewal of licenses that expired during the lockdown period is 31 March 2022.

The Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport has a capacity to renew 173000 licenses monthly. By the end February we calculated the backlog to be around 423 000 licenses that had yet to be renewed in addition to current licenses that will expire.

Apart from the constrained capacity to renew licenses in Gauteng, licensing centres were also forced to close down for a week after the National Driving School Association South Africa protested against the online driver license booking system and forcibly blocking entrance to Driver’s License Testing Centres (DLTC).

It is estimated that 400 00 Gauteng motorists are likely to be faced with a crisis by the end March as they will be unable to renew their driver’s licenses and will face fines for driving without a valid driver license card. This could also impact on their vehicle insurance.

The introduction of more online transactional services by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) can assist in alleviating the pressure on DLTCs in Gauteng and relieve pressure on the bottlenecks experienced at DLTCs.

However this will not be enough to make the 31 March deadline.

We call on the Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, to provide one last extension for the validity of licenses that expired during Covid-19 so that Gauteng can deal with its backlog.

Issued by Fred Nel, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Roads and Transport, 7 March 2022