Lobby group AfriForum is calling on the government to scrap South Africa’s five-year driver’s licence. AfriForum will be challenging the five-year validity period for driving licences in court on Monday and Tuesday.
The organisation will be in the Pretoria High Court to demand a declaratory order stating that the five-year validity period of driving licenses is unconstitutional and should be scrapped.
Spokesperson for AfriForum Community Safety, Jacques Broodryk explains what prompted the move.
“What initially prompted this application was the fact that we received numerous complaints from members of the public who were getting fined for driving with expired driver’s licence cards but in the meantime they weren’t able to renew their cards. Because either they couldn’t get an appointment to renew at the testing centre, or the printing machine was broken. So this has been a crisis that has been going on for many years. Maybe it should be extended to 8/10 year renewal, anything in that regard would be welcomed at the moment; but the most practical solution is for licence card renewals to be scrapped.”
Meanwhile, various organisations have since appealed to the government to consider extending the validity period of SA driver’s licences.
In March last year, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) appealed to the then-Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, to extend the validity period from five to 10 years.
VIDEO | OUTA speaks about the extension driving licence cards:
