South African driver’s licences will be made valid for longer

Transport minister Fikile Mbalula in an interview with eNCA confirmed that the government is going to Cabinet with a proposition of extending the validity period for driver’s licence cards in the country to eight years, up from the current five.

The minister said his department is in the process of procuring a new printing machine that will be able to produce more secure cards, and further said “we are even changing the timeframe of the driver’s licence” to eight years.

This follows several calls from industry participants such as the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) to extend the validity period, arguing that doing so will cut down on unnecessary red tape, reduce administrative challenges, and save money both for the government and citizens in the long run.

“We believe there will be no adverse impact on the lives of South Africans in the case of extending driver’s licence renewals,” said Outa.

The minister did not confirm when the extended validity period will take effect, however, it’s expected that this will happen when the new card design is introduced on 1 November 2023.

The below image shows the possible new design for South African driver’s licence cards according to tender documents filed in November 2021.

Multiple machines incoming

Mbalula said the transport department is actively busy procuring new printing machines which will have new service providers, and that it will be moving away from the current practice of only having one printer to look after the whole nation.

“We are moving away from having [one machine], we will have multiple ones [that are] even faster,” said the minister.

The new machine will be more sophisticated than the 20-year-old one that is currently in operation and will be able to produce cards with stronger security features and a new design that conforms to the “developed world.”

The current printer will be decommissioned on 1 April 2024, and the current card will then remain valid until 31 March 2029.