South Africa’s New Driving Licence

South Africa could launch a pilot of its new driving licence cards as early as 1 November 2023, and motorists in the country can expect several changes, including a new, more secure design and a possible validity extension to ten years.

The new licence card and the necessary production equipment will also lay the foundation for South Africa’s eDriving licence plan, which is scheduled for the 2024/25 financial year.

On 1 September 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet ministers approved a new driving licence card for South Africa that complies with international driving licence standards.

‘The new proposed card will make the country’s driving licence compatible with the International Information Technology Personal Identification Compliant Driving Licence (ISO18013),’ the Cabinet said.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula is expected to publish the changes to the driving licence card in the Government Gazette.

Front (© Transport Ministry).

 

Reverse (© Transport Ministry).

He also said he plans to pilot the new card from 1 November 2023 until 31 March 2024 after procuring the necessary production infrastructure. Mbalula said the procurement would start in October 2022.

‘The current driving licence card and the equipment used to produce it will be decommissioned on 1 April 2024,’ he said. Mbalula specified that a five-year transition period would apply, meaning older cards will remain valid until 31 March 2029.

The minister said the government is also looking at extending the renewal period of licence cards from five to ten years.

The Department of Transport’s Driver’s Licence Card Account (DLCA) revealed the new driving licence design parameters in its 2022/2023 annual performance plan, adding that the new card could incorporate blockchain technology.

It explained that the modernised card would be secure, high quality, and durable. ‘The introduction of the new driving licence involves a new design of the driving licence card and the re-engineering of processes to allow for agility and focusing on delivering services efficiently and quickly,’ the DLCA added.

‘The project will allow for the adoption of digital technologies such as blockchain and other related technologies.’

Unified identity card

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) had proposed a unified identity and driving licence card system in May 2021. The group said that driving licences should be registered and linked to identity document cards and that the change should include extending the validity period for driving licences from five to ten years.

OUTA said this would address the chaotic driving licence renewal situation South Africa has experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘If government wants to find a solution for this problem, they need to treat the cause and not the symptoms,’ the portfolio manager for OUTA’s public governance division, Dominique Msibi, said.

‘We need to see a complete system overhaul that is more innovative and convenient to motorists but that achieves what the driver’s license was set out to achieve in the first place.’ ‘We also need to see a corruption-proof system and a process that deals with incompetence in the public service,’ Msibi added.

Ministers in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet say that they are already looking into implementing an all-in-one identity card system that includes ID, driving licence, and social security (Sassa) information. However, during a media briefing in April 2022, transport minister Mbalula said South Africa is still ten years away from implementing such a system. He joked that he hopes to no longer be transport minister by then.

‘When you go for Sassa, when you go for everything, you will have a single card at your disposal,’ he said.