Civil rights organisation AfriForum applied for leave to appeal in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, against the ruling that the validity period of driving licence cards should not be revised.
AfriForum said it aimed to prevent road users, who had not received their renewed driving licence cards on time, from being fined.
Acting Judge Jacob Strijdom dismissed AfriForum’s initial review application on October 30. The ruling stated that a review application had to be brought within 180 days after the initial regulation regarding the validity period of driving licence cards was issued.
However, AfriForum’s legal team argued in its appeal application that there are sufficient merits to bring a review application because the relevant regulation was not in line with either the National Road Traffic Act and the Constitution.
Louis Boshoff, the campaign officer at AfriForum, said the Department of Transport wanted to enforce regulations which, in many cases, were not possible to comply with.
AfriForum has received several complaints from individuals who had not received their renewed driving licence cards from the department on time. That had resulted in them being fined despite every effort to remain legally licensed.
The department’s licence card printer had often broken down in the past few years and it was clear that licences continued to expire faster than new ones were printed, AfriForum said.
“South African road users know what it feels like to be fined because of a broken printer. If the Department of Transport cannot even print driver’s licence cards, they should not print fines for expired licences either – the injustice is obvious,” Boshoff said.
The court had earlier heard arguments that the National Road Traffic Act was contrary to the five-year validity period and left no room for a regulation that stipulated that licence cards expired.
Judge Jacob Strijdom, however, dismissed the application on a technicality.
According to his judgment, AfriForum should have brought the application within 180 days after the regulation was issued 23 years ago.
“The explanation for the delay offered by the applicant (AfriForum) is not reasonable”, he had said.
The judge had added that the effluxion of time had compromised the ability of the court to properly evaluate the legality of the decision sought to be challenged.
“The delay is bound to prejudice the State’s ability to present a full record and full recollection of all the reasons, considerations and processes that informed a particular decision.”
The judge had concluded that it was thus not necessary for the court to consider the merits of the application. The judge had subsequently also ordered AfriForum to pay the costs of the application.
Pretoria News