Card licences: window for some
5 September 2003
Transport Minister Dullah Omar tabled draft amendments to the National Road Traffic Act this week to allow certain categories of licensed drivers who have not converted to the new credit card format to do so in a window period still to be determined.
Omar was speaking at the National Council of Provinces in his first address since taking leave due to ill health last year.
The minister said the process of converting driver's licences to the card format had been largely successful. "Looking back over the last five years, more than 4.5 million drivers have converted their licences in terms of the law.
"In the same period, about two million new licences, also in the credit card format, have been issued. Today there are approximately 6.5 million drivers on our roads with credit card format licences."
Omar said the amendments cater for people who were unable to convert their driving licences for a variety of reasons, including:
- Those who were admitted to any medical facility or detained in any state institution in terms of a court order or sentence.
- Those posted by government on foreign missions or assignments.
- Those on a contract of employment outside the country's borders.
- Full-time students at foreign academic institutions.
According to the minister, the amendments will provide for a window period to allow such people to convert their licences, during which period they will be exempt from prosecution for not being in possession of a valid driver's licence.
The amendments will also cater for people with driving licences from the former homelands who could not convert because their records were available only at one of the offices in these territories, or because those offices no longer existed.
Source: BuaNews
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