South Africa’s Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) has announced plans to reduce the average production time for driving licence cards to seven working days over the next three years.
This strategy is detailed in the Annual Performance Plan for 2026/27. Transport Minister Barbara Creecy stated that the DLCA aims to achieve this goal by tackling existing backlogs, improving cybersecurity measures, and addressing customer complaints.
“The Annual Performance Plan details how the entity intends to provide the public with high-quality driver’s licence cards printed efficiently within manageable timeframes,” the minister said.
As part of its production targets, the DLCA has established the average number of working days required to produce driving licence cards as one of its key output indicators.
In the 2022/23 fiscal year, the DLCA took an average of 23 working days to produce a driving licence card. This improved to 22 days in 2023/24, and further reduced to 19 days in 2024/25.
Looking ahead, the DLCA is targeting an average production time of 21 days starting in 2026/27, aiming to reach 14 days by 2027/28.
Ultimately, the aim is to reduce production times to an average of seven working days by the end of the 2028/29 financial year.
Additionally, the DLCA has set its production targets for the next three years. It aims to produce 2.6 million cards in 2026/27 and 2.7 million cards each in both 2027/28 and 2028/29.
These targets are lower than the production figures reported in 2022/23, when the DLCA printed over 3.4 million cards, and in 2023/24, when it produced over 2.8 million cards.
There had been plans to roll out a new driving licence card, but these were postponed after the High Court ruled the tender process invalid.
This legal uncertainty has since been resolved, allowing the DLCA to refocus its efforts on stabilising its production environment.
“This will involve initiating the acquisition of new production equipment to replace the current machinery and to modernise the card production process,” said the DLCA.
Good news for driver’s licence validity
The Department of Transport is planning to extend the validity of driving licence cards in South Africa from five years to eight years.
This initiative is outlined in the department’s annual performance plan for the 2026/27 financial year.
According to the department, they aim to submit the policy document for this change to the Cabinet for approval by the end of the 2026/27 financial year, which is in March 2027.
Following that, the plan is to seek parliamentary approval for the extension by March 2028.
This updated timeline highlights a lengthy and delayed process for a change that was expected to be implemented years ago. The department’s plan includes both short-term and medium-term goals.
For the medium term, the goals span 2026/27 to 2028/29. In 2026/27, they aim to secure approval for extending the driving licence validity period to eight years, which will be submitted to the Cabinet.
In 2027/28, the department plans to submit the extension for approval to Parliament. However, there are no specific goals stated for 2028/29. In terms of short-term goals for 2026/27, several key milestones have been established.
In June 2026, they intend to submit the validity extension to the Minister. In September 2026, the proposal will be submitted to the Shareholders’ Committee.
By December 2026, it will be submitted to the relevant Forum of South African Directors-General (FOSAD) Clusters.
Finally, by March 2027, they expect to obtain Cabinet approval for the extension of the validity period to eight years.
