International driving permits

Question

International driving permits. My wife and I are foreigners and don't have permanent residency yet. We therefore cannot convert our foreign permits to South African licences. I have tried to read up on the type of international driving permit that is allowed in SA but I can’t find a concise answer. There are two main types’ of IDL's the one issued by the Automobile Association (AA) of local country (in this case my home country)-this is normally valid for one year and have to renewal every year. The second type is the one issued by International Automobile Association (www.idl-iaa.com) valid for up to ten years. We are on the latter one and this is valid for ten years. This matter was raised when reviewing my wife’s car insurance policy and they said they only accept the one issued by the AA. The two types of licences are exactly the same in terms of requirements to obtaining them; they just differ in the length of their validity. I would like to hear an expert opinion on this. Thanks.

Answer

Any international driving permit (IDP) issued in terms of either the International Convention relative to Motor Traffic (Paris, 1926), the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic (Geneva, 1949), or the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic (Vienna, 1968) is acceptable in terms of the National Road Traffic Act (Act 93 of 1996) Section 23 and Regulation 110.

A comment is included in some publications of the Act that the IDP is ‘issued by the AA of SA’ but this comment is not part of the law, it is only for information. Thus you may query the insurance company regarding the acceptance of the IDP. Please note that in effect the IDP is only a convenience / standardisation document so that countries in which the holder travels, understand the authorisation contained in the original driving licence. When the IDP is eventually converted, the original driving licence on which the IDP was based shall accompany the application and must still be valid at the time of such application. Thus, the IDP cannot effectively extend the validity of the base licence.