South Africa getting new driving licence cards this month

Transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga has revealed that her department expects to start printing South Africa’s new driving licence cards by the end of April 2024.

While briefing the media on the scrapping of e-tolls in Gauteng, she said her department was finalising the procurement of a new licence card printing machine.

Following the procurement of the new machine, it will undergo a trial phase to ensure it functions as intended and that the cards produced are of sufficient quality.

“We are at the tail-end of the procurement process, because the team that is busy with that had to travel to France to see the machine for themselves,” said Chikunga.

“Before the end of this month, we will be printing new driving licences [cards] and will launch at least the first 100 per province, as we have said. We are moving in that regard.”

This is past the previous expected launch date of 31 March 2024, as announced by Chikunga’s predecessor Fikile Mbalula.

However, Chikunga alluded to this in January 2024 when she revealed that her department hadn’t yet awarded a tender for the new printer. At the time, she said the plan was to finalise the process by the end of April.

“Delays in concluding this evaluation process have been occasioned mainly by the complex nature of this bid itself, coupled with the fact that the evaluation criteria also included a compulsory site inspection process as part of due diligence,” the minister said.

In September 2022, Mbalula said the procurement of the new machine would kick off in October of that same year. However, that did happen as planned.

The Driving Licence Card Account’s (DLCA’s) annual report for the 2023/24 financial year revealed that the public entity had put plans in place to acquire the new machine.

The entity also finalised the procurement process of smart enrolment units during the period under review,” said DLCA head Tsholofelo Lejaka.

The driving licence cards require a new printer due to their updated design with support for modern technologies to ensure they align with the International Information Technology Personal Identification Driving Licence (ISO18013) standard.

This includes bolstered protection against counterfeiting and modification, with security features like biometric data, watermarks, and holograms.

The DLCA previously suggested that it could incorporate blockchain technology into the new system.

ISO18013 also allows the cards to hold more data and enable more seamless use in countries other than South Africa.

The current driving licence cards have been used since 1998, and the machine used to produce them is effectively obsolete. It has also experienced several breakdowns in recent years, resulting in production backlogs.

The new card’s design was revealed in a Department of Transport tender document published in November 2021. Various elements of the card’s design are shown in the images below.

One of the major aspects of motorist licencing in South Africa that civil organisations like Afriforum and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) want addressed is the five-year validity period.

These organisations have called for South Africa’s driving licence validity period to be extended beyond five years.

Afriforum launched an application with the Northern Gauteng High Court to fight the legality of the five-year validity period, arguing the cards should never expire. However, its application was dismissed in October 2023.

Acting Judge JJ Strijdom said the civil action organisation’s case came too late after the legislation had been promulgated and that it failed to provide sufficient reasoning for the delay.

Outa called for the validity period to be extended to 10 years.

Following pressure from these organisations and the general public, Mbalula proposed extending the period to eight years, subject to approval from the cabinet.

Outa said this was a step in the right direction but disagreed with the minister’s approach. It said he had the authority to extend the validity through legislation as a minister.

To date, there has been further clarity on the validity period of the new licence cards.