AfriForum to challenge driving license renewals in court

With the news that the country’s only licence printing equipment is broken again, AfriForum has again put the spotlight on their call for a reassessment of, or the total scrapping of, renewing one’s licence card every five years.

Following the filing of a lawsuit last year challenging the renewal of driver’s licences, AfriForum will appear in the Pretoria high court on August 7 and 8.

The civil rights organisation applied to oppose the mandate that driver’s licence cards be renewed every five years and to call for a reassessment of this obligation or the total scrapping of this mandate.

AfriForum’s campaign officer for strategy and content, Ernst van Zyl said the constant breakdown of the country’s only licence printing machine was among the reasons to challenge the renewals.

“The traffic departments’ ongoing administrative problems, delays, and poor administration, as well as the country’s only licence printing equipment that is constantly breaking down and creating significant backlogs gives us reason to challenge.

“The Department of Transport’s well-known failures make it impossible and irrational to require motorists to renew their driver’s licence cards every five years.

“In addition, many other countries allow much longer periods between driver licence card renewals and in some countries, driver’s licences are valid indefinitely,” Van Zyl said.

“The application also requests a declaratory order that motorists may not be penalised or fined if they do not have a renewed licence card,” he added.

According to Van Zyl, the government should grant a grace period for those with expired licence cards because of the recent breaking down of the printing machine.

“People are now again victims of the government’s poor planning.

“This inept government doesn’t even have the foresight to invest in a second printing machine for licence cards.”

Van Zyl said their application is reliant on strong legal and practical grounds.

According to Van Zyl, AfriForum believes it has strong legal and practical justifications for its application to be granted by the courts.

“From a legal perspective, the National Road Traffic Act and regulations are too vague to be workable.

“The legislation does not clearly distinguish between a driving licence and a “driving licence card”.

He said, the act was not clear-cut and did not state that motorists had to apply for new licence cards upon expiry.

“It does not even state that it is a crime to drive with an expired licence card nor prescribe any fines, penalties or sanctions.

“The regulation does not specify expectations concisely, clearly, or internally consistently enough for the general people to know what is expected of them. Additionally, if the government is unable to properly identify the legislation that is being broken, it cannot prosecute members of the public,” Van Zyl said.

If AfriForum succeeds in its legal action, it will result in a turning point. “This would mean that the government has unlawfully punished the public for more than 20 years,” Van Zyl remarked.

Rekord previously reported that the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) was looking into possible changes to the renewal time-frames commissioned by the Minister of Transport.

RTMC spokesperson Simon Zwane said, “The research has been done as requested by the minister. Further decisions will be taken and communicated by the ministry”.

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