South Africa’s new driving licence cards delayed

South Africa’s new driving licence cards were not launched by the end of April 2024, contrary to promises from transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga.

During a press briefing on the shutdown of e-tolls in Gauteng on 10 April 2024, Chikunga said that her department was at the “tail-end” of procuring the machine to print the cards.

“The team that is busy with that had to travel to France to see the machine for themselves,” said Chikunga.

“Before the end of this month [April], we will be printing new driving licence [cards] and will launch at least the first 100 per province, as we have said. We are moving in that regard.”

The department has since gone quiet on any announcements regarding the arrival of the new printer, its installation, or the start of production on the first new cards.

The timeline for an end-of-April launch was already much later than promised by Chikunga’s predecessor — Fikile Mbalula — who announced the new cards would be piloted from November 2023 to March 2024.

Under that plan, the old printer and licence card would have been decommissioned by 31 March 2024, while the last expiry date for the old cards would have been 31 March 2029.

The transport department failed to respond to queries from MyBroadband about progress with the launch in late 2023.

It was only in January 2024 that Chikunga confirmed that the printer had not been procured and the cards would only launch by the end of April.

Used for over a quarter of a century

The current cards have been used for 26 years, and their printer has become prone to breakdowns in the recent past.

A two-month outage in late 2022 and early 2023 exacerbated a Covid-19-driven renewal backlog, resulting in 1.3 million outstanding renewals at one point.

The new printer will supposedly be able to produce more licence cards per day, while the cards themselves will feature support for newer technologies and improved security.

They will incorporate biometric data, watermarks, and holograms, in alignment with the International Information Technology Personal Identification Compliant Driving Licence standard.

This will ensure that the cards are better protected against counterfeiting and modification and can be used more seamlessly for driving outside South Africa.

The design of the licence card was included in a tender document first published in November 2021. Its basic layout and main features are shown in the images below.

New driver’s licence card design (front)

New driver’s licence card design (back)

There is still no clarity on whether the licence cards will come with a longer validity period than the current five years.

This issue has been a major concern for organisations like Afriforum, the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA), the Democratic Alliance (DA), Driving.co.za, and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).

Among the reasons for extending the length of validity is that it can help take the strain off the renewal and card printing process and relieve motorists from going through this process more frequently than what might be reasonably necessary.

The AA, DA, and Outa have called for a 10-year validity period. At the same time, Afriforum and Driving.co.za want licence cards that never expire, except in cases where a driver might no longer be capable of driving safely.

A MyBroadband comparison of licence card validity periods in 31 countries found that 22 had longer renewal periods than South Africa.

The most common validity period was ten years, while several countries only required renewals every 10 or 20 years.

Singapore and Switzerland’s licence cards only expire when the driver reaches 65 or 70, respectively.

Thereafter, elderly Singaporeans must renew every three years and Swiss motorists every 2 to 5 years, depending on the outcome of their medical exams.

Only Kenya and Egypt had shorter renewal periods than South Africa, while Argentina, Botswana, Canada, Egypt, Kenya, Mexico, and Nigeria had renewal periods similar to those in South Africa.

Mbalula previously said an 8-year validity period would be considered for approval by the cabinet, following pressure from the public and organisations like Outa.

However, while the design of the new card has received the green light, the longer validity period is still up in the air.