The tyranny of the driver’s licence card: Stephen Grootes questions SA’s five-year renewal rule
In his latest Daily Maverick piece, Stephen Grootes slams the frustrating and nonsensical cycle of licence card renewals faced by South Africans.
FILE: Twitter/Fikile Mbalula
Mike Wills (in for CapeTalk's John Maytham) is joined by The Money Show's Stephen Grootes, whose latest piece for the Daily Maverick asks why, in a digital age, we still need a physical driver's licence.
Listen below:
For many South Africans, renewing a driver’s licence card is a ritual drenched in frustration: the long queues, the bureaucratic hurdles, the broken machines.
And for what? To be given another piece of plastic to replace one that still worked perfectly well.
Why is it then - asks Stephen Grootes in his latest article for the Daily Maverick - that every five years, we’re forced back into this cycle?
In the piece Grootes raises the alarm on what he calls the 'driver’s licence card tyranny'.
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"What I don't get is, when something is so obviously rational, why don't people do it?"
- Stephen Grootes, Host - The Money Show
Grootes recalls the rigamarole of last renewing his licence in 2021, lamenting that he had hoped things would have improved by now.
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"It took pretty much an entire day at the diver's licence centre - and then to eventually go and get it, I remember waking up on a Saturday morning at 6am... it was the only way to get it."
- Stephen Grootes, Host - The Money Show
"I cannot believe that nothing has changed since then, but nothing has changed since then."
- Stephen Grootes, Host - The Money Show
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Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the full conversation - and click here to read Stephen Grootes' latest piece for the Daily Maverick.