The South African Department of Transport is in the process of formally extending the validity period of driving licence cards from five years to eight years. This long-anticipated move forms part of the department’s annual performance plan for the 2026/27 financial year, which sets out a structured legislative roadmap for taking the policy change all the way through to parliamentary approval.
Key Takeaways
- The reform is happening, but slowly: South Africa’s Department of Transport has committed to extending driving licence card validity from five to eight years, with a clear legislative roadmap – however, full parliamentary approval is not expected until March 2028 at the earliest.
- Money has always been the real obstacle: Despite years of deflection and questionable justifications from previous leadership, Minister Creecy confirmed in 2025 that revenue concerns around the Driving Licence Card Account were the true reason the reform was repeatedly blocked or delayed.
- Motorists should not expect immediate relief: The policy is still working its way through multiple layers of government approval, and there is no guarantee that an eight-year validity period will apply retroactively to those who renew their licences before the legislation is finalised.
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The Full Legislative Roadmap
The Department of Transport has laid out the following step-by-step schedule for advancing the policy during the 2026/27 period:
- June 2026 – The validity period proposal is formally submitted to the Minister of Transport for consideration.
- September 2026 – The proposal is then put before the Shareholders’ Committee for review.
- December 2026 – The document is submitted to the relevant Forum of South African Directors-General (FOSAD) clusters, specifically the Economic Sectors, Investment, Employment and Infrastructure Development (ESIEID) cluster, as well as the Justice, Crime Prevention, Peace and Security (JCPS) cluster.
- March 2027 – The validity period extension to eight years is approved for formal submission to Cabinet.
The FOSAD (Forum of South African Directors-General) is an inter-departmental body that coordinates government-wide policy implementation. Its involvement in this process signals that the driving licence reform touches on multiple government mandates, including economic activity, employment, and public safety.
Medium-Term and Long-Term Goals (2027/28 Financial Year)
| Financial Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2026/27 | Extension to 8 years approved for Cabinet submission |
| 2027/28 | Extension to 8 years approved for Parliament submission |
| 2028/29 | No milestone yet stated |
Political Backing Under Minister Barbara Creecy
The proposed extension carries the active support of current Transport Minister Barbara Creecy, who made her backing publicly clear in November 2025. This endorsement was further confirmed by the department’s director-general, Mathabatha Mokonyana, the following month in December 2025.
However, even with political will now firmly in place, the department acknowledged at the time of Creecy’s announcement that a cost-benefit analysis remained ongoing. Officials noted concerns about the potential unintended consequences of extending the validity period, particularly in relation to government revenue streams that are directly tied to the current renewal cycle.
The Financial Question – The Driving Licence Card Account
At the heart of the hesitation is the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA), the entity responsible for producing and issuing driving licence cards in South Africa. The DLCA has openly acknowledged that the proposed policy directive may have material implications for its financial sustainability.
The Driving Licence Card Account operates as a separate government entity with its own annual performance plan and budget. It generates the bulk of its revenue from card production and issuance fees, meaning that a longer validity period directly reduces how frequently motorists need to pay for a renewal.
In the DLCA’s own performance plan, it outlined that an extended validity period would reduce the volume of cards renewed over any given cycle, which would in turn affect the revenue flows that fund the organisation’s operations. The DLCA noted that while the policy shift is likely to deliver operational benefits across the broader licensing system – by reducing service demand pressures and easing administrative burdens on motorists – the financial trade-off for the organisation itself remains a genuine concern.
The DLCA stated that the policy development process is still under way, including regulatory reviews, stakeholder consultations, and impact assessments, and that it would continue to monitor developments and assess the full range of operational and financial implications.
If you are currently due for a driving licence renewal in South Africa, it is worth noting that there is no guarantee the new eight-year validity period will apply retroactively to existing cardholders. The exact terms of any transitional arrangements will depend on the final legislation passed by Parliament.
A Long Road Littered with Broken Promises
The extension of driving licence card validity has been a contentious and at times openly dishonest policy matter stretching back several years. The origins of the current push can be traced to former Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, who announced in 2022 that the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) would undertake a formal study into the possibility of extending driving licence card validity to ten years.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is a public entity under the Department of Transport, responsible for road traffic management and safety in South Africa. It operates in partnership with national, provincial, and local government structures.
The RTMC duly completed and submitted its study to Cabinet. However, the full details of the study’s findings were only disclosed publicly during the shorter ministerial tenure of Mbalula’s successor, Sindisiwe Chikunga.
The RTMC’s Findings Were Rejected Without Credible Justification
In 2024, it emerged that the RTMC’s study had proposed and formally supported an extension of driving licence card validity to eight years. Despite this, Chikunga’s department chose to completely reverse course and abandon the proposal.
The reasons put forward for rejecting the extension were widely condemned as baseless. The department attempted to link the renewal cycle to road safety by claiming that many accidents on South African roads are connected to infectious and other diseases, and that more frequent renewals therefore ensure more regular eye tests. This reasoning was immediately and roundly dismissed by critics, legal commentators, and road safety experts alike.
Regular eye tests are indeed a component of the South African driving licence renewal process. However, road safety researchers and ophthalmologists have noted that vision deterioration serious enough to cause accidents typically presents symptoms that would prompt individuals to seek medical attention independently of a licence renewal cycle.
The rejection was widely interpreted as being financially motivated rather than safety-driven. Driving licence card renewals represent a substantial and reliable revenue stream for the DLCA, and an extension to eight years would significantly reduce that income. While the departmental leadership at the time never explicitly acknowledged this as the reason for rejecting the RTMC’s recommendations, Minister Creecy confirmed in late 2025 that revenue concerns had in fact been the primary stumbling block all along.
The Cost of Delay for South African Motorists
The delay in implementing this reform has had real costs for South African citizens. Millions of drivers have continued to pay renewal fees and navigate an often slow and frustrating licensing bureaucracy on a five-year cycle, when the evidence from the RTMC’s own commissioned research supported a move to eight years as far back as 2022.
The broader plan now under Minister Creecy seeks to correct this course, with the annual performance plan serving as a concrete commitment to a structured timeline for delivering the reform – even if the road to full legislative implementation still stretches to at least 2028.
Conclusion
The extension of South Africa’s driving licence card validity to eight years is a reform that is long overdue, repeatedly delayed, and still not guaranteed. What should have been a straightforward administrative improvement – backed by the RTMC’s own research and broadly welcomed by the motoring public – was held hostage for years by departmental reluctance rooted in financial self-interest rather than any genuine public safety concern. While Minister Creecy’s endorsement and the structured legislative timeline laid out in the 2026/27 annual performance plan represent the most credible progress the reform has seen to date, South African drivers would be wise to temper their optimism until the ink is dry on the final legislation – a moment that, at the current pace, remains at least two years away.
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