Will Department of Transport meet driver’s licence renewal deadline?
The results of a years-long fight for an extended driver's licence validity period will soon be revealed, and the issue could come to a head.
South Africa has seen many changes coming from the Department of Transport in the last couple of years.
READ: How the AARTO licence demerit system will really work
From new legislation, rules and regulations to the implementation of new systems like AARTO.
We've also seen the chaos caused by the breakdown of the driver's licence printing machine, and the call for greater enforcement and supervision of scholar transport after citizens grew fed up with news of regular, multiple, devastating accidents.
READ: 94% of scholar transport vehicles in Soweto fail safety inspections
According to MyBroadband, there is more driver's licence news that is quite pressing.
South Africa’s transport department had set a target for itself, and with the deadline fast approaching, it might not meet it.
READ: Limpopo scholar transport operators given 60 days to comply
The target is part of the Department of Transport’s 2025/26 annual performance plan and aims to extend the validity of driver's licences from five years to eight years.
The formal decision must be submitted to Parliament by the end of March 2026, as the proposal must be presented during the fourth quarter of the financial year, ending on 31 March 2026.
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With almost only a month left in that period, attention has turned to whether the department will meet its own deadline.
Reports show that this self-imposed timeframe has been highlighted by civil society organisations, including AfriForum, which has been vocal in pushing for the implementation of the extended validity period.
READ: Gauteng rolls out "10-minute" Smart Licensing Centres
The deadline represents a concrete commitment by the department to move the issue forward.
- If the decision is not submitted to Parliament within the stated period, the extension process could face further delays.
- AfriForum has written directly to transport minister Barbara Creecy, urging her to ensure the department adheres to its planning.
- AfriForum campaign officer Louis Boshoff has argued that the minister should at least follow through on the department’s published targets.
- He has also raised concerns that, while the backlog in printing licence cards appears to have been largely resolved, the underlying infrastructure issues remain.
The deadline has also appeared in other official documents, which suggests that the target has been consistently adopted across multiple levels of planning.
READ: Major South African digital driving licence update
This includes:
- The Department’s strategic plan for 2025 to 2030
- A transport portfolio committee report.
But a major question on everyone's mind is whether the current driver's licence printing machine is still reliable.
No new printer has been acquired yet, leaving the department and drivers in a risky position if this one fails again and causes another extreme backlog.
READ: This is how long you can drive with an expired licence in SA
Supporters of the eight-year validity period argue that extending the renewal cycle would lead to a temporary reduction in demand.
This period of lower pressure could then be used to upgrade printing equipment and systems without severely disrupting drivers.
READ: High Court declares driving licence card machine tender irregular
Why change the validity period now?
Historically, the government has argued that driving licence cards were not durable enough to last longer than five years.
However, this reasoning has been increasingly questioned, especially after independent research challenged the justification.
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Nearly four years ago, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) commissioned consultancy firm Zutari to benchmark South Africa’s system against international practices.
The RTMC received an independent assessment recommending an extension of the validity period for standard Code B licences.
- The May 2022 report compared South Africa’s driving licence validity rules with those of dozens of other countries.
- It found that developed countries with strong road safety records typically used validity periods of between nine and ten years.
- In contrast, countries with poorer safety records tended to favour shorter periods of five years or less.
Despite this, progress was delayed.
READ: Safety concerns raised over popular car brand after crash test results
In September 2022, then transport minister Fikile Mbalula said he would take a proposal to Cabinet to extend the validity to eight years, but shortly afterwards, he resigned to focus on his role as ANC secretary-general.
Mbalula’s 2024 successor, Sindisiwe Chikunga, and RTMC CEO Makhosini Msibi, stated that the extension proposal had never been presented to Cabinet.
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They maintained that the five-year validity period would remain and, as BusinessTech stated, "put forward absurd reasons for rejecting the extension, such as nonsensical ties to health and communicable diseases."
This position was challenged by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, and after obtaining Zutari’s report through a Promotion of Access to Information Act request, Outa released the findings publicly.
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The full report revealed:
- Certain findings had been selectively used to justify retaining the five-year period.
- The consultants noted that regular eye testing was not prioritised by many South Africans
- They did not view regular eye testing as sufficient justification for such a short renewal cycle.
- The experts found that eye tests conducted during the current renewal process were inadequate for properly assessing a driver’s eyesight.
- Their overall recommendation was clear: existing laminated cards should be valid for eight years, while future polycarbonate cards could potentially last for ten years.
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