The Department of Transport (DoT) says there will be no further extensions for driving licence renewals to deal with the COVID19 imposed backlog.
A South African driver's licence card.
Thursday, March 31, 2022, marks the last day of the grace period the department has given citizens to renew their licences.Transport Department spokesperson Collin Msibi says, “There is a backlog. The country has about 12 million licences, so the backlog we are currently having is 1.4 million. We were projecting that by the end of the month it will be about 2 million. Those that have applied when we had glitches between November and January will have their licences by the end of April.
Gauteng Transport MEC Jacob Mamabolo says, “We have given all the necessary avenues over time. I would like to calm all drivers’ licence holders; you have an online booking system and an android system., we are worried about the large number of people not honouring their bookings and they do not show up.”
The Automobile Association has asked Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula to extend Thursday’s deadline for the renewal of driver licences, saying hundreds of thousands of drivers have still not applied for their new card licences.