Big change coming for South African driving licences

South Africa’s Department of Transport plans to propose extending the driving licence to Parliament before the end of the year, something that various organisations have called for in recent years.

The department’s annual performance plan for 2025/26 revealed its plans to submit the proposal to Parliament in the fourth quarter of the financial year, sometime between 1 January and 31 March 2026.

It provided a timeline for the project, which will begin with consulting with the executive committee, the committee of transport officials, and MECs in the first quarter of the financial year.

It will then move into a public consultation period in the second quarter, before consulting the department’s stakeholders’ committee in the third quarter.

Assuming all goes to plan, it will submit the proposal to Parliament in the fourth quarter of the 2025/26 financial year.

Various entities, including the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA), and Afriforum, have long advocated for extending the validity period.

In feedback to MyBroadband, Outa said it believes a 10-year validity period is reasonable and necessary given the administrative burden, costs, and inefficiency associated with the current scheme.

“Many other countries follow a 10-year cycle and South Africa would do well to align with international best practice,” it said.

“That said, we welcome the Department’s proposal to extend the period to eight years as a step in the right direction.”

It added that the move would help alleviate pressure on the licence card production system, reduce queues at licensing centres, and save motorists time and money.

Former transport minister Fikile Mbalula first announced plans to extend the validity period from five to eight years in October 2022.

His announcement came after cabinet approved South Africa’s new driving licence cards on 2 September 2022.

“We are changing the lifespan, timeframe of the driver’s licence…it will be eight years. We are going to cabinet with that,” Mbalula said.

Outa welcomed the announcement, describing the extension to eight years as a “step in the right direction”. However, it urged him to move forward with the process.

Unnecessary delays

Outa disagreed with Mbalula’s approach to amending the legislation on several counts. It noted that no one had seen a formal proposal, nor the research used to reach the proposed eight-year validity period.

The civil action organisation had previously conducted its own research and found that the global average for driving licence validity was eight-and-a-half years.

In his announcement, Mbalula indicated that the cabinet would first have to approve the plan before his department could move forward with extending the validity period.

“Outa respectfully disagrees with the Minister’s approach and is of the opinion that this change can easily be effected by the Minister himself,” said Outa.

Outa reiterated this stance regarding the department’s most recent announcement, saying the transport minister doesn’t need to approach Parliament to effect the change.

“We do question the need for a lengthy legislative process,” said Outa.

It said the five-year validity requirement isn’t contained in primary legislation, but rather in Regulation 108(5)(a) of the National Road Traffic Regulations.

“This means the minister has the authority to amend the regulation directly via the Government Gazette without needing to wait until the fourth quarter of the 2025/26 financial year,” it said.

“We urge the Department to act with greater urgency. Given the current backlog in driver’s licence card production reported at over 350,000 unprinted cards, this reform is more important than ever.”

The civil action organisation’s executive director for accountability, Stefanie Fick, wrote to the transport minister on 17 June 2025, requesting that she extend the validity period for all cards to 10 years.

This came after Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said extending the validity period would provide immediate relief to motorists and the department, given the production backlog.

“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.”