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<\/a>End of 5-year driving licences:<\/strong> The Department of Transport has confirmed that driving licence card validity periods will be extended to eight years in South Africa. Department of Transport director-general Mathabatha Mokonyama confirmed the decision in early December 2025. However, until the change is implemented, the country\u2019s licence cards remain valid for only five years. Mokonyama told Parliament\u2019s Select Committee on Public Infrastructure and the Minister in the Presidency that the country will definitely move to an eight-year driving licence. [MyBroadband<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Northgate Mall roof collapse<\/strong>: Videos of Northgate Mall’s roof collapsing have gone viral, with the major Gauteng mall suffering from the ongoing severe storms hitting much of the country. Power utility Eskom warned over the weekend that it was facing collapsed infrastructure in several provinces due to the ongoing storms and was working with its teams to restore service. Northgate management confirmed that a small section of the mall was impacted by the heavy rain in the area, causing part of the roof to collapse. No injuries were reported. [IOL<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tighter gun laws for South Africa: <\/strong>The controversial Firearms Control Amendment Bill has resurfaced in South African politics. The proposed legislation, which faced massive public opposition in 2021, seeks to overhaul the Firearms Control Act, 2000. At the heart of the controversy is the proposal to remove self-defence as a valid reason for obtaining a firearm licence. For many South Africans, particularly those in high-crime areas, this is viewed as irrational and a betrayal by a state that is often unable to guarantee public safety. [Newsday<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n DA internal battle flares up: <\/strong>The Democratic Alliance has been hit with another internal power battle, this time between new environment minister, Willie Aucamp, and his predecessor, Dion George. Aucamp has filed a public protector complaint against George, alleging that the former minister abused state resources and launched fake whistleblower reports. The reports, he claims, were cooked up under the pretense of investigating Aucamp’s alleged ties to the lion hunting industry and to prevent him from taking over the department. George denies the allegations. [News24<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Payday for SA politicians: <\/strong>The Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers has published its recommended salary hikes for South Africa\u2019s top government officials, pushing an above-inflation increase of 4.1%. Covering approximately 20,587 incumbents, the R13.077 billion spent on salaries in 2024\/2025 would balloon to R13.613 billion in 2025\/26 with the increase, adding over R530 million to the tab. Over the past decade, the wage bill has decreased as a share of consolidated spending, falling from 35.7 % in 2013\/14 to 32.1 % in 2023\/24. By 2027\/28, the wage bill is projected to decrease to 31.4% of consolidated spending. [BusinessTech<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are five important things happening in South Africa on Monday, 29 December 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":781102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20398],"tags":[21618,1329,18243],"class_list":["post-846819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5-things","tag-creecy","tag-da","tag-driving-licence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846820,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846819\/revisions\/846820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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