Cabinet has approved extending the validity of driving licence cards in South Africa from five to ten years, meaning most motorists will need to renew far less often than they do now.
Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni confirmed the approval in a post-Cabinet briefing on Thursday, 30 July. The extension covers licence codes A, A1, B and EB, which apply to light motor vehicles and motorcycles.
Driver’s licence validity extension
If you drive a heavy vehicle, a commercial truck or hold a professional driver’s permit, this does not apply to you. Those renewals stay on a cycle of two to five years, and professional licences remain on the two-year cycle.
Ntshavheni said the change aligns with international best-practices and will ease demand pressure within the licensing system.
Watch the media briefing here:
The approval does not mean the change takes effect immediately. Legislative amendments are still required before the new validity period comes into force.
It’s been a process….
The road to this point has been long, and at times deliberately stalled. Former Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced in 2022 that the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) would investigate extending the validity period to 10 years.
The study was completed and submitted to Cabinet, but only made public under his successor Sindisiwe Chikunga.
In 2024, the study’s findings came out in favour of extension, but Chikunga’s department rejected the proposal outright. The reasoning offered at the time tied shorter renewal cycles to communicable diseases and road accidents.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) later obtained the underlying research through PAIA requests and found that the second report cited as justification simply did not exist, with the Department of Transport itself confirming as much.
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy put the proposal back on the table when she took up the portfolio under the Government of National Unity in 2024.
Thursday’s Cabinet approval is the result of that push.
You will still need legislative changes to pass before renewal offices start issuing cards with a 2035 expiry. Watch that space.
