Pretoria - Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has said the Cabinet approved the replacement of the current driving licence card.
The new card will have more secure design features and compliance to international driving licence standards.
The outgoing driving licence card was introduced in 1998 and the production equipment procured in the same year, but the technology ha become obsolete.
Mbalula said: “We will publish the changes to the driving licence card in the government gazette. This will enable us to commence with the procurement process for the new production infrastructure next month.
“The new card will be piloted from November 1, 2023 until March 31, 2024. The current driving licence card and the equipment to produce it will be decommissioned on April 1, 2024. However, there will be a 5-year period of transition from the old card to the new. The current cards will continue to be recognised until March 31, 2029.”
Mbalula said they earlier committed to review of the renewal period of the driving licence card. Research was undertaken by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC). “The research revealed that countries ranked above South Africa had an average driving licence card validity period of 9.3 years, and countries ranked lower averaging 4.4 years.
“The average driving licence card validity period of almost 10 years is applicable in developed countries, with much better road safety ratios than SA. “This is an important factor in validating a longer renewal period.”
The department was evaluating the options at its disposal informed by the local reality, which includes carnage on the roads, driver competence and lifestyle diseases that influence safe driving.
He said they consulted with MECs and received full support for the review.
Mbalula also introduced a smart enrolment solution to reduce turn-around times at driving licence testing centres. It has been successfully piloted at the Waterfall and Eco-Park Centurion licensing centres, and Gauteng will be the first to go live in March 2023 before full deployment to other provinces.
He called on people who applied to renew to collect their cards as a high number of people had yet to come forward to renew their expired driving licences.
The number stands at 1.2 million. “We have successfully reduced the waiting period for a driving licence card from 58 working days in April 2022 to 10 working days in July 2022.”
Pretoria News