Civil Aviation Act, 2009 (Act No. 13 of 2009)

Notice No. 3530

26 September 2025

GG 53426

Department of Transport

Part 112 of the Civil Aviation Regulations, 2011, requires an aircraft passenger departing from an aerodrome in the Republic to produce a valid identification document to the relevant air carrier at the boarding gates. A valid Driving Licence Card is one of the acceptable identity documents for the purposes of boarding a flight.

As you may be aware, there is a backlog in the issuing of driving licence cards due to the challenges experienced by the Card Production Facility from 05 February 2025 until 07 May 2025 when the card production machine broke down. The Driving Licence card Account (DLCA) is grappling with the card production backlog, which at that time was sitting at over 700,000 driving licence cards.

This letter serves to communicate the position of the Department of Transport regarding the validity of driving licence cards as follows:

A motorist can keep their old card after its expiry and apply for a temporary driving licence;

Such an expired driving licence card may be used for a period of up to three months, provided the holder thereof can show proof that he or she applied for a new card before the current card expired; and

If the card had already expired at the time of application for a replacement, the holder must also apply for a temporary driver's licence at the time and keep proof thereof. A temporary driver's licence is valid for six (6) months, or until the new replacement driving licence card is issued.

In that regard, the airlines should accept an expired driving licence card as a form of identification of its holder under the circumstances outlined above.

This notice is valid for a period of six (6) months from the date of issue.

Mr. Mkhuleko Hlengwa, MP

Deputy Minister of Transport

Date: 19/08/2025