Half of SA driving licences fakes

Less than half of drivers in South Africa could have valid licences

More than 3m driving licences in South Africa could be fakes, the country's transport department has warned.

Auditors went through about 10% of the 7m licences and say half were invalid. An official expressed "serious doubts" about the abilities of many road users.

There are reports of drivers being issued with licenses but being unable to handle a vehicle.

The government is setting up a $3m fraud unit to investigate licence issuing centres.

The audit discovered that one centre in Mpumalanga was discovered to have issued 4,000 fraudulent licences.

Criminal investigations are now under way in three states.

DoT official Wendy Watson said some of the main problems encountered were forged eye-sight tests, missing medical declarations and a large number of fake and fraudulent foreign licences flooding into South Africa.

"Some foreign licences are literally just a scrap of paper with no photo," she told a South African newspaper.

A South African insurance company said they would reject accident claims if licences were found not to be valid.