Civil rights group AfriForum has taken South Africa’s 5-year driving licence card renewal period to court, challenging the constitutionality of the laws.
The group is demanding that, among other things, the court issue a declaratory order stating that the five-year validity period of driving licenses is unconstitutional and that all fines issued for expired licenses are unconstitutional. On the matter of constitutionality, he said that this arises in the context of the dysfunction that the renewal period has caused – because of the state-imposed renewal period, millions of motorists are forced to renew their licences when the transport offices are incapable of processing them due to machine faults and other administrative issues.
Following on from the promises made by former minister Fikile Mbalula that a new period would be presented to cabinet, current minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said last week that this is still the plan. On top of the validity of the cards, plans are also underway to introduce new driving licence cards altogether.While there are some nuanced visual changes coming to the card, the big changes will be in the form of new technologies and improved security features.