Transport Department extends grace period for licence renewals

LIMPOPO – The Department of Transport on Friday (August 27)  announced that the validity period for the renewal of expired vehicle licences has been extended to 2022.

The postponement comes into effect from Friday and includes all learner’s licences, driving licence cards, temporary driving licences and professional driving permits that expired during the period that commenced from March 26, 2020, up to and including August 31 2021, are deemed to be valid and their validity periods are extended for a further grace period ending on March 31, 2022.

INTERVENTION MADE ON DLTCs: Added capacity.

In 7 of the 9 Provinces, large Registering Authorities and DLTCs have extended their operating hours to include Saturdays, and further augmented their human resource capacity. pic.twitter.com/g5Oe3FX4kb

— Department of Transport (@Dotransport) August 27, 2021

INTERVENTION MADE ON DLTC: extension of validity period.

Learner's licences, driving licence cards, temporary driving licences and professional driving permits that expire during the period that commenced from 26 March 2020 up to and including 31 August 2021. pic.twitter.com/axOk0dcxaN

— Department of Transport (@Dotransport) August 27, 2021

In a statement, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said the previous extensions of the validity period were meant to enable an orderly clearing of the backlog. “We have assessed the quantum of the backlog in each province and evaluated the challenges motorists are experiencing in the process to renew their licences. “’

We’ve announced the extension of the renewal of learner's licences, driving licence cards, temporary driving licences and professional driving permits to 31 March 2022.

This will come effective on the date of the Government Gazette

Vid by @Newzroom405
pic.twitter.com/ttDrgdUnyW

— ANC SECRETARY GENERAL | Fikile Mbalula (@MbalulaFikile) August 27, 2021

According to the statement nationally, 1.2 million (1,210,965) licences have not yet been renewed out of a total of 2.8 million (2,852,388) expired licences. This represents 42.4% non-renewal, with 57.6% of all expired licences having been renewed.

Gauteng accounts for the highest number of licences not yet renewed at 437,819 out of a total of 980,038 expired licences (44.6% non-renewal rate) while KwaZulu-Natal follows with a 43.4% non-renewal rate (195,200 licences not yet renewed out of a total of 448,889 expired licences).

Western Cape has 153,901 licences not yet renewed out of a total of 430,546 expired licences (35.7% non-renewal rate) and Limpopo with a 45.7% non-renewal rate, meaning 110,389 licences not yet renewed out of a total of 241,207 expired licences.

Mpumalanga (41.7%), Eastern Cape (44.8%), Free State (40%), North-West (40.4%) and Northern Cape with 19,577 licences not yet renewed out of a total of 52,329 expired licences (37.4% non-renewal rate).

Mbalula says they remain concerned about this high backlog as it adversely impacts effective law enforcement. “We are, however, more concerned about the reasons that give rise to this state of affairs, which include capacity challenges on Driving Licence Testing Centres (DLTC’s), corruption of officials, the slow speed and unavailability of the eNatis system, the faulty live capture units resulting in long queues at DLTCs, faulty eye testing equipment and delays in validating fingerprints as live capture units are not linked to Home Affairs real-time.