How long a driver’s licence lasts in South Africa vs 10 other countries

In South Africa, a driver’s licence lasts five years before it needs to be renewed, which is well below the average renewal time in many other countries.

Most countries have a validity period in the range of eight to 10 years, with certain countries such as Germany only asking its citizens to apply for a new card every 15 years.

We looked at 10 different regions to see how long their driver’s licenses are valid, in comparison to our own:

Certain countries, such as Australia, Canada, or the United States, have different validity periods because licences are issued at a state or provincial level, rather than a nationwide standard set by the federal government.

In Canada for example, citizens living in British Columbia or Ontario have a five-year licence renewal, while those living in Quebec can wait up to eight years before renewing their cards.

Likewise in Australia, an individual in Melbourne, Victoria, can use their licence for 10 years while someone living in Perth in Western Australia needs to renew theirs after five.

Victoria, Australia also requires that people over the age of 75 renew their cards every three years instead of five.

Similarly, Portugal has a system where individuals are required to renew their licences for light passenger vehicles every five years until the age of 70.

Once a person reaches the age of 70, they must re-apply for their licence every two years, and past the age of 67, no one is allowed to renew their licence to drive collective transport vehicles such as a school bus.

Calls for 5-year renewals to be extended

There have been calls in South Africa from citizens and organizations alike to extend the validity of a driver’s licence from five to 10 years.

The demand for extensions sharply increased in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, which resulted in a massive backlog of quickly-expiring licences that the system was ill-equipped to process.

This issue was compounded when the country’s only card printing machine broke down in November last year, leading to a backlog of over 500,000 cards.

Groups like the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) have stated that a change from five to 10 years would cut down on red tape and long waiting times and ultimately save money both for citizens and the government.

It also claimed that the country’s current system is a money-making scheme – citing the high processing fees being asked by the Department of Transport (DoT) and Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), as well as the extremely high salaries being earned by certain employees, with four employees earning as much as R1.5 million in 2021.

The DoT has also argued in the past that the five-year requirement supposedly creates a safer road environment, however, in 2021 South Africa recorded more than 12,000 road fatalities, compared to a country like Germany with a larger population and a licence validity period of three times as long that recorded just over 2,500 fatalities in the same year.

Earlier in 2022, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said the DoT would investigate the possibility of an extension for licence renewals to 10 years, and this week he revealed that the government is going to cabinet with the intention of extending the validity period to eight years rather than the current five.