{"id":878615,"date":"2026-10-06T17:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T15:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=878615"},"modified":"2026-10-06T17:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T15:50:08","slug":"good-news-for-anyone-with-a-driving-licence-in-south-africa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/878615\/good-news-for-anyone-with-a-driving-licence-in-south-africa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Good news for anyone with a driving licence in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Department of Transport has presented the 10-year driving licence validity extension to Parliament, showing that the process to implement the change is just two steps away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transport Minister Barbara Creecy gazetted a proposal to change the validity period of driving licences in South Africa from 5 years to 10 years on 17 August 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the proposed changes, the validity of a driving licence card for code A, A1, B, or EB driving licences will be set to 10 years from the date on which it is ordered from the Card Production Facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The validity of a driving licence card for a code C1, C, EC1, or EC driving licence will be set to five years from the date on which it is ordered from the Card Production Facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The validity of Professional Driving Permits will remain for 2 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the publication of the proposed changes for public comment and the closing of the comment window in September, the department is now incorporating the feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next step is for the regulations to be resubmitted to Cabinet for approval, and then the final step is for the Minister of Transport to publish the change into the National Road Traffic Regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the department, the current five-year period for licence card vality was to ensure that licence holders remained qualified to drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A driving licence is permanent and does not expire, but the card a driver carries has limited validity to ensure regular qualification checks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When a holder applies for a new licence, an eye test is performed to ensure the person is not disqualified to hold a licence,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The holder of a licence must make a declaration on the application for a new card that he or she is not disqualified to continue holding a licence.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the coming changes, the extension of the card validity period will modernise the system of driving licence card renewal and reduce renewal pressure and backlogs, the department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will also align the validity period with international best practice, while maintaining stricter controls for heavy and professional drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driving licence card price changes might be coming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, the department warned that there would be broader implications, particularly for revenue generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With longer periods between renewals, the Card Production Facility will take a revenue hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In order to cover the concomitant costs related to the extension of the validity period of the driving licence card, the Minister commissioned the Card Production Facility to develop a pricing model,” the department said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will “determine acceptable costing modalities for future adjustment considerations against the extension of the validity period of a driving licence card”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This suggests possible future price changes to account for the longer validity period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside the longer validity period, the department also noted that the current laminated paper driving licence card type in South Africa will be replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New licence cards will feature a polycarbonate card that will better support the longer validity period for driving licence cards in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s extended driving licences are two steps away from reality.<\/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":"2107498880132628904","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2228455851308147","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17871751089649633","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2552,18243],"class_list":["post-878615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-department-of-transport","tag-driving-licence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878615","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=878615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878617,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878615\/revisions\/878617"}],"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=878615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}