Good news about driving licence cards in South Africa

South Africa’s Department of Transport (DoT) wants to extend the validity period of the driving licence card from five to eight years, following former minister Fikile Mbalula’s proposal in October 2022.

The DoT tabled its annual performance plan for 2025/26 in April 2025, and one of its key outcomes for the 2025/26 financial year is submitting the proposed extension to Parliament for its endorsement.

It outlined a timeline regarding the extension of the validity period. It will begin by consulting with the executive committee, the committee of transport officials, and MECs during the first quarter.

The department’s goal for the second quarter of 2025/26 is to conduct public consultation on the proposed extension by publishing the draft Notice in the Government Gazette.

If everything goes according to plan, the department will consult with its stakeholders’ committee in the third quarter of the year before submitting the proposal to Parliament in the fourth quarter.

The plan to extend the validity period of South Africa’s driving licence cards has been controversial.

Mbalula’s announcement in October 2022 followed a research report by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) that suggested extending the validity to eight years was a good move.

“We are changing the lifespan, timeframe of the driver’s licence…it will be eight years. We are going to the cabinet with that,” the former minister said. However, the change was never implemented.

In June 2024, RTMC CEO Makhosini Msibi stated that the validity period couldn’t be extended because many accidents in South Africa are related to infectious and other diseases, making regular eye tests crucial.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which has long advocated for extending the validity period, described Msibi’s reasoning as absurd.

The civil action organisation stated that the RTMC disregarded the research conducted in 2022 and justified its decision by citing research that it doesn’t possess.

Outa had requested the RTMC’s research reports on several occasions, and it finally received the 2022 report sometime in 2024.

However, when it requested research suggesting that infectious and other diseases were to blame for the lack of an extension, the RTMC refused to provide it.

Moreover, the Department of Transport said no such report exists.

The table below summarises the Department of Transport’s 2025/26 timeline for extending the validity of the driving licence card from five to eight years.

Bringing South Africa up to speed

Extending the driving licence validity period to eight years would align South Africa’s driving licence scheme with those of many other countries worldwide.

MyBroadband recently compared South Africa’s driving licence validity period to that of 32 other nations and found that only two had a shorter period.

The analysis showed that the validity periods of seven nations closely matched South Africa’s, while the remaining 23 countries’ driving licences are valid for longer than South Africa’s.

Extending the validity period would also solve a significant issue with the Driving Licence Card Account’s production of driving licence cards.

South Africa only has one driving licence card printing machine that has been in operation for far too long and is prone to breakdowns.

A recent breakdown that occurred in February 2025 has resulted in a significant production backlog that will take four to six months to clear.

According to Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage, extending the validity period would provide immediate relief. However, Outa had requested that the Department of Transport extend it to 10 years.

“We’ve been saying to Barbara Creecy for some time, and the previous ministers: start by extending the validity period of the driver’s licences from five to ten years,” Duvenage said.

“It’s a norm around the world, and that takes a lot of pressure off the department straight away.”

On 17 June 2025, Outa’s executive director for accountability, Stefanie Fick, again wrote to the minister and requested that she extend the validity period for all cards to 10 years.