In a recent media report (‘New licence plate system under fire’, Business Day, 27 August 2007) the Democratic Alliance’s Gauteng transport spokesperson, James Swart, is quoted as saying that the credit-card-type driving licence (which replaced the previous paper-based system) has failed to take illegal drivers off the road and has therefore brought no tangible benefit. The truth of the matter is that the card has proved to be a highly successful tool used in traffic law enforcement.

 It is absurd to claim that the new licence has had no tangible benefits.

Courtesy of its advanced security features forgeries are easily identified, and it is well-neigh impossible to produce a forgery that cannot be identified as such.

Says Zerk Bester, attached to the Department of Transport’s Investigations and Forensics Sub-directorate: ‘Before 1998 a paper-based driving licence was issued and placed in drivers’ identity books. Fraud abounded since it was a simple matter to insert a counterfeit licence in an ID book. It is estimated that around one million fraudulent licences were in circulation before we moved to a high-tech, credit-card-type licence. This effectively removed the forgeries from circulation. It is therefore absurd to claim that the new licence has had no tangible benefits. By July of this year close on 14 million of these driving licence cards had been produced and issued, and although poor-quality forgeries are not uncommon we have seen no evidence whatsoever of  scrutiny-proof fraudulent licence cards.’

The driving licence card (DLC) is on par with the best of the world in terms of security features. The technology used to transfer the personalised information onto the card is a patented, unique process called DTR (data transfer reversal).  This technology makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or forge the finished product.  The special paper used is manufactured and prepared in Europe from where it is imported. The paper is stored in a high-security area at Prodiba, the card production facility.

Other features include design intricacies that are visible only to the expert eye, the use of a specially designed font that is not available commercially, micro-printing, a photo-sensitive layer that shows up any attempts to print false personalisation data on the card, an encrypted barcode that can only be read with an authorised card verification device and optical-variable printing that cannot be reproduced by the scanning process.

The card production facility is as secure as the card it produces. Located in the eastern suburbs of Tshwane, Prodiba bristles with multi-layered defences and its operation is based on numerous stringent processes.

‘The credit-card-type licence meets our current requirements in a highly secure and effective manner and will, through incorporation of the latest local and international technological developments, undoubtedly continue to do so for many years to come,’ concludes Bester.