The final deadline for the renewal of driving licences that expired during the Covid-19 lockdown period was Thursday (05/05).
In an effort to address a serious national backlog, Fikile Mbalula, minister of Transport, had extended the grace period to the day in question. The initial deadline was set for 15 April.
Last Thursday’s deadline pertained to members of the public whose driving licence, temporary driving permit, professional driving permit and learner’s licence expired between March 2020 and 31 August 2021.
A request by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) and the Automobile Association (AA) prompted the granting of the grace period, owing to realistic challenges faced by the public.
During this time motorists reported slow-paced service at the various traffic centres where they renewed their licences. The breakdown of the machine used in the production of the entire country’s driving licence cards in November last year added to the challenges experienced. The machine was only back in operation 83 days later.
Free State motorists were not excluded from suffering these frustrations. In Bloemfontein this was evident until the very last minute before the deadline, with long queues snaking outside the Free State Lengau Testing and Traffic Centre last week.
Despite arriving as early as 06:00, many people stood in queues for longer than an hour.
According to the Department of Transport, the number of unrenewed driving licence cards stood at 1,3 million countrywide at the beginning of May, with most non-renewals (68%) relating to motorists aged 25 to 50.
Of the 134 917 driving licences in the Free State to expire between March 2020 and 31 August 2021, 71 690 still had to be renewed by the end of March.
