Move to stop use of licences as IDs

Department of Transport moves to amend the National Road Traffic Regulations to stop the use of these road traffic documents as identification

1 hour ago

Gugu Myeni 1 minute read

Government moves to stop the use of licences as form of identification

Driving licences, learner’s licenses and traffic register number certificates may soon cease to be recognised as a form of identification.

This as the Department of Transport moves to amend the National Road Traffic Regulations to stop the use of these road traffic documents as identification.

Once the amendments take effect following a public participation process, all institutions, including banks, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), offices and residential estates, must review their policies and systems.

The department said the amendment seeks to remove legal ambiguity, stop abuse and align road traffic legislation with the Identification Act.

“In 2023, the Department assisted the Department of Home Affairs in a major investigation that revealed widespread abuse of TRNs and other road traffic documents that are used as a form of an identity document.

“The TRN was created solely to enable persons without a South African identity number to transact on the National Traffic Information System (NaTIS) for road traffic purposes, whilst finalising their legal status with Home Affairs.

“It was never intended to serve as general identification,” the transport department said in a statement.

The investigation found that some institutions are accepting TRNs and driving licences as a general identification, contrary to the Identification Act, 1997 (Act No. 68 of 1997), which mandates Home Affairs as the sole authority to maintain the National Population Register and to issue identification documents.

When the new law takes effect, Traffic Register Numbers (TRNs), learner’s licences and driving licences will only be accepted for their intended purpose: road traffic-related transactions.

For identification and verification purposes, only Home Affairs-issued documents will be valid.

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