Africa-Press – South-Africa. The backlog in driving licence cards in South Africa is still hovering around 540,000, and the process of procuring a new driving licence card machine is now on hold owing to a declaratory order application.
This has pushed the turnaround time for a new card to around two months, and the delays will continue well into 2026.
The transport department told the Sunday Times that 539,947 licences are still waiting to be printed, with many applicants already having to wait months for their cards.
The problem continues to be the country’s ageing licence card printing system, which is 26 years old and has become increasingly unreliable.
The machine has broken down at least 160 times in its lifetime, with 38 working days lost to breakdowns in 2025 alone.
The Department of Transport has already spent R12 million on repairs this year, while an extra R4.4 million has been paid in overtime to keep production running around the clock.
To cope with the backlog, the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) has been running the machine 24 hours a day with employees working overtime.
This has boosted production from the normal 7,440 cards a day to as many as 22,320. However, demand remains higher than output.
The DLCA noted that around 10,500 to 11,000 new orders come in every day, meaning the backlog is only shrinking slowly.
Over the past three months, the DLCA has managed to catch up at a rate of 2,187 cards a day, but with 539,947 licences still waiting to be printed, it would take over eight months to clear the backlog.
This calculation also assumes that the old machine continues running without another major breakdown.
If it were to stop working completely, the backlog would grow by more than 300,000 cards every month it is offline.
In June 2025, motorists waited four to six weeks. Now they are waiting eight to nine weeks. That is four times longer than the standard two weeks that was previously the norm.
To ease some of the frustration, the Department of Transport has waived fees for temporary driving licence cards and suspended penalties for motorists with expired licences.
New printing machines dead in the water
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy
The long-term solution was supposed to come from a plan to modernise the system by introducing new, more secure cards and procuring three new printing machines.
Unlike the current system, the new machines would be maintained and repaired in South Africa rather than having to be shipped overseas. But the plan has been delayed by problems in the tender process.
The contract for the new machines, worth R900 million, was awarded to a company earlier this year, but was then pulled into an investigation by the Auditor-General over irregularities.
Reports in the Sunday Times revealed that a seven-person delegation sent to Europe to inspect the machines visited countries such as France and Amsterdam, even though the machines were not located there.
The models they were supposed to examine were in the Czech Republic, Greece, Morocco, and Burkina Faso. Instead, they reportedly inspected an unrelated machine owned by the bidding company.
Following the investigation, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy announced that her department had approached the High Court to apply for a declaratory order on the tender.
She said the aim was to obtain legal guidance on how to proceed given the Auditor-General’s findings, and ensure no further irregular spending occurred. Until the court provides clarity, the procurement of the new machines is on hold.
This has left South Africa stuck with the old, unreliable printer for the foreseeable future. The department initially expected the backlog to be cleared between November 2025 and January 2026.
Now it admits that it could take far longer, with delays stretching into the second half of 2026 if demand continues to grow and the current machine experiences further breakdowns.
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