Renewing your Driving License Card in South Africa
Renewing your Driving License Card can be daunting, to say the least. Having to take a day off work to do something this tedious is quite annoying, not to mention queuing for hours while pretending to be “interested” in your “not so interesting” fellow queers.
If you are due to renew your Driving License Card and dread that visit to your local DLTC (Driving License Testing Centre), here is a quick guide on exactly what you need, and need to know, to make the trip as painless as possible.
Yes, you have to renew your Driving License Card
Although our actual Driving License never expires, our Driving License Card does. Eventhough there is an ongoing petition to declare expiry of Driving License Cards unlawful, it currently still is required by law to renew your Driving License Card every 5 years.
When should you apply for your new Driving License Card?
If your card is due to expire soon, it is advisable to apply for a new one at least six weeks to two months before it actually expires, just to make sure that you get your new one in time. If you apply for a new Driving License Card after your current one has expired, you will have to apply, and pay the extra fee, for a Temporary Driving License.
You can now book online
To everyone’s delight, or at least those who live in parts of the Eastern Cape and Gauteng, you can now make a booking to renew your Driving License Card on the Natis website. You will still have to go down to the Licensing Centre on the date set with your booking to have your fingerprints taken, do the eye test and submit required documents, but it sure beats standing in a queue watching the sun rise. You can even get one step ahead and avoid the eye testing, by getting this done at an optometrist a day or two before, and then submit this test when at the Licensing Centre.
What exactly will you require?
- Your South African ID, current/expired Driving License Card or South African Passport.
- A certified copy of above identification.
- 4 (to be safe) black & white ID photos. You can usually get this done by vendors outside Licensing Centres as well.
- Proof of your residential address, not older than 3 months. This can be a utility bill, account statement or bank statement. If the proof of address is not in your name, you can hand it in along with an affidavit from the rightful owner declaring that you live at the address. If you stay in an informal settlement, a letter from your ward councillor, with an official date stamp, stating that you reside at the premises, can be submitted.
- The DL 1 form (Application for renewal of Driving License Card), which you can download from the Natis website or get at the Licensing Centre.
- And last but not least, the application fee and some extra cash for photos, if you’re planning to have this done outside the testing centre.
Before embarking on this adventure, get in touch with your local Driving License Testing Centre to find out whether you can book online, what the current renewal fees in your particular province, what payment methods (cash/card) they accept and whether they accept independent optometry tests.
It might also be a good idea to take your own pen and a snack, you never know how long your visit may be.
We hope this helps
Let’s hold thumbs for that petition in its quest to render the renewal of Driving License Cards unlawful, but in the meantime, we hope this helps and that the experience can at least be tolerable.
