CAPE TOWN – The Democratic Alliance (DA) has responded to the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA)’s recent call for the suspension of fines against motorists who were unable to renew their licences, insisting that more fundamental reforms are needed beyond temporary relief measures.
This comes after South Africa’s sole driving licence card printing machine, which broke down on 5 February, has only now resumed operations after more than four months of inactivity. The extended breakdown has contributed to a staggering backlog of over 747 000 unissued driving licence cards across the country.
While the Department of Transport has confirmed that the machine is back online and efforts are underway to clear the massive backlog, the DA argues that this temporary fix fails to address deeper systemic problems.
“The collapse of the system stems from the Department’s failure to replace the 26-year-old printer,” said a DA spokesperson. “This failure was caused by a bungled tender process that inexplicably ballooned from R486 million to R898 million and is now tied up in litigation, effectively paralysing any meaningful reform.”
The opposition party has outlined a series of demands, calling for the Minister of Transport to table the full Auditor-General’s report on the failed tender in Parliament, to summon Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) and Department officials before the Portfolio Committee to account for their actions, and to deliver a comprehensive recovery plan with clear timelines to operationalise a second printer.
Most significantly, the DA has renewed its call for the decentralisation of driving licence card production to provinces, arguing that breaking the national bottleneck is essential to building a more resilient and responsive system.
“South Africans should not be punished for government’s administrative collapse,” the DA said in a statement. “They deserve a system that works.”
The current crisis highlights ongoing challenges in South Africa’s transport infrastructure and administrative systems, with ordinary citizens bearing the brunt of institutional failures. As the backlog continues to affect hundreds of thousands of motorists, pressure mounts on government officials to implement lasting solutions rather than temporary fixes.
