Pressure mounts on South Africa’s 8-year driver’s licence plan

With the 2025/26 financial year drawing to an end, civil rights organisation AfriForum has written to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy, urging her to announce her decision regarding eight-year driving licences.

It has been months since the Department of Transport confirmed that eight-year licences will be implemented, though the department hadn’t finished its cost-benefit analysis at the time.

Since the initial announcement, the department has experienced several setbacks, having to overcome backlogs due to a broken card printer, a rejected printer tender, and even the department’s own analyses.

AfriForum campaign officer, Louis Boshoff, said that although the backlog has been largely addressed, several challenges remain.

“No new printer has been purchased, and the current printer could break down again any day,” he said.

“Once driver’s licences are made valid for eight years, there will be a period of reduced demand during which the equipment and systems for printing and issuing driver’s licences can be upgraded.”

In his letter to Minister Creecy, Boshoff called on the department to urgently give effect to its official decision to extend the validity period of driver’s licence cards to eight years.

According to the department’s own Annual Performance Plan, its decision needs to be submitted to parliament for endorsement by the fourth quarter of the financial year, which AfriForum is calling on the minister to do.

“I wish to remind you that the end of the 2025/26 financial year is drawing near and that urgent work must be made to table this proposal in parliament,” wrote Boshoff.

He wrote that AfriForum regards the issue as of great importance, especially since no new driver’s licence card printer has been acquired.

“The sooner a decision is implemented to extend the validity period to eight years, the sooner the department’s burden to print new licence cards will be eased,” he said.

“The least the Minister can do is stick to her own Department’s planning.”

Eight-year licence could impact departmental revenue

In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, the transport minister confirmed that the Department of Transport has not been rushing the process to extend the licence validity period.

Creecy added that the department is hoping to avoid the “unintended consequences” that may come along with the decision.

She said that although the extension will definitely take place, her department is waiting for the results of its study to determine the financial repercussions of the change.

“Once we make the decision, we should not be in a situation where later we say, ‘Whoops, there were unintended consequences,’” said Creecy.

“But I do hope that this year, this is something we can put to bed once and for all.”

Creecy explained that the planned licence validity period increase will result in less frequent renewals and a loss of revenue for the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA).

As a result, the department is considering increasing driver’s licence renewal fees to negate the effect of the eight-year validity period extension and cover the difference in revenue.

“There could be an implication that there isn’t enough revenue if it’s every eight years, and we may have to increase the tariff,” said Creecy.

“So, that’s the issue that one is looking at, how we balance what it costs to produce the licence with the fact that we will be giving the public a longer period of time for licence validity.”

The minister’s declaration has come under fire from Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which argued that the government is not in the business of making money.

Outa said that government entities should only generate enough revenue to cover costs, not to make a profit.

The organisation’s Advocate, Stefanie Fick, stated that the extension should not be used to squeeze more money from the public.

Outa also argued that a reduction in licence renewals should lead to fewer administrative costs, meaning renewal fees won’t need to be raised.

“Minister Barbara Creecy said the department may increase fees if the extension proceeds; if that is being considered, the full cost basis must be made public first,” said Fick.