The Cabinet has approved the extension of driving licence card validity in South Africa, which will increase the time between renewals from 5 to 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni confirmed the approval in a post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday (30 July).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cabinet approved the extension of the validity period for licence codes A, A1, B and EB<\/strong>, Ntshavheni said. However, this will only apply to light motor vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Heavy, commercial and transport vehicles will adhere to the current renewal cycles of between two and five years, and professional licences will remain on the two-year cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The change aligns with international best-practice, enhances administrative efficiency, reduces the frequency of renewal for motorists, and eases demand pressure within the licensing system,” Ntshavheni said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The changes are not yet in effect and still require legislative amendments.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Until these amendments have been processed and gazetted, motorists are still required to adhere to the current five-year validity period and ensure their expired cards are renewed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The confirmed extension for light motor vehicle licence card validity to 10 years aligns with the original intention to do this from back in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced in 2022 that the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) would conduct a study on extending the validity of the cards to 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the study was completed and submitted to Cabinet, the details were only revealed during the shorter tenure of his successor, Sindisiwe Chikunga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2024, it was revealed that the RTMC\u2019s study proposed and supported an extension of driving licence card validity to eight years; however, Chikunga\u2019s department completely walked back the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, Chikunga put forward absurd reasons for rejecting the extension, such as nonsensical ties to health and communicable diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That validity extension got placed back on the table in 2024 when current Transport Minister Barbara Creecy took up the portfolio under the Government of National Unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creecy expressed her approval and willingness to extend the validity period in November 2025, and the department\u2019s director-general, Mathabatha Mokonyana, confirmed the move in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2026, the Transport Department noted that the cost-benefit analysis was still being processed, and once it was considered, a change would be presented to Cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The extension was officially placed into the department’s short- and medium-term goals in April 2026, with the plan to have the cabinet’s approval by the end of 2026\/272 (March 2027).<\/p>\n\n\n\n This target has now been reached far ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The broader plan was to have the extension approved for submission to Parliament by the end of the 2027\/28 period (March 2028); however, this could now also happen much sooner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The applicable FOSAD clusters are the Economic Sectors, Investment, Employment and Infrastructure Development (ESIEID) cluster and the Justice, Crime Prevention, Peace and Security (JCPS) cluster.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cabinet has approved the extension of driving licence card validity in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":858233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2082784435523506332","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[18243,25989],"class_list":["post-868169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-driving-licence","tag-validity-period"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868169","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=868169"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":868179,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868169\/revisions\/868179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\nMedium-term goals (2026\/27-2028\/29)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n\n\n\nShort-term goals (2026\/27)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"