By Neelam Rahim

When you take out your license from your pocket and realise it expired, and then you wonder how quickly five years have passed, that is the reality.

Joining the discussion with Radio Islam International on why driver’s licenses have to be renewed every five years is Afriforum spokesperson Reiner Duvenage.

According to the legal argument, Reiner says there is no sufficient legislation that mandates these five years according to the act itself. However, that doesn’t mean that people can stop renewing their licenses at this point. We have to wait for a court to make a judgement in our case.

Afriforum submitted a legal application at the beginning of April. It appears from the court record that the initial justification for mandating this five-year driving license renewal period was the physical material of the card would not last longer than five years.

According to Reiner, the justification raises the question to the Minister and department of transport, why then are other countries able to print license cards that last for longer than five years? Why do only our license cards last for five years?

Reiner says Afriforum’s legal application goes into because this legislation is vague and does not explicitly mandate the renewal of driving license cards. The legislation is therefore not sufficient to require this renewal period.

“We also say that practically it’s becoming almost impossible for people due to the failures of the transport department.”

He added that practical and legal considerations give Afriforum confidence that this case will be won in court.  

In response to questions asked by Radio Islam, Reiner said they hoped to achieve in this case is that the legislation at the moment interpreted to mandate this five-year renewal period be declared illegal to punish people for not driving with a renewed driving license card. And that this period is reviewed and extended.

“In our application, we also asked for this period to be completely scrapped because there is no sufficient reasoning behind the legislation.”

The application was filed in April, going through the court process. The transport department is opposing the case, and Afriforum currently awaits a court date expecting to be in court by the end of this year or likely the beginning of next year.

Click the link below for the full interview.