Thousands of motorists across South Africa can expect to receive their long-awaited driving licence cards soon, as the national driving licence card printing machine is officially back in operation.

The National Department of Transport confirmed on Thursday that the machine has been repaired, after a three-month outage.

“The National Department of Transport can confirm that the driving license card printing machine has been fixed and operations have resumed,” said Collen Msibi, spokesperson for the National Transport Department.

The malfunction, which began on 5 February 2025, resulted in a significant national backlog of 747,748 unprinted cards.

The Western Cape had a backlog of 108,402 as of the start of May. In Cape Town, cards for nearly 60,000 applications from the start of this year had not been received.

ALSO READ: City frustrated by ongoing driving licence card renewal woes

The Mobility Department in the Western Cape, which accounts for about 14% of the national backlog, welcomed the development.

“The Western Cape Government is hopeful that this marks the start of real progress. But the National Department of Transport has its work cut out for it as it works in easing the massive backlog in printing new cards,” said Muneera Allie, spokesperson for the provincial Mobility Department.

The Driving Licence Card Agency, an entity of the Transport Department, will extend staff working hours in an effort to reduce the backlog.

“The backlog reduction is also dependent on the number of orders being received on a daily basis,” said Msibi.

The Transport Department has committed to providing updates on the backlog reduction whenever significant progress is made.