Durban - It’s not the road traffic department’s job to remind motorists to renew their car licence discs and car owners should not be frustrated by the new requirement of providing proof of residence when renewing.
That was the response from KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate spokeswoman Zinhle Mngomezulu after motorists expressed their frustrations about the changes.
The new requirement is for the provision of proof of a person’s residential and postal address, and the days of the department reminding motorists about the expiry date of their licences are a thing of the past.
The motorists’ discomfort was mainly that there was a R90-a-month penalty for those who did not renew their licences on time and that failure to produce a recent, acceptable proof of address saw them being turned away. Although Mngomezulu said the department had made efforts to get the message out about the changes, some people still said they were not aware of it and were kicking up a fuss.
Durban North pensioner Marc Ducray said for 60 years he had received annual notices telling him when he needed to renew his vehicle licence. He said when he went to the Durban North post office to do it, most of the people in the queue had not received their renewal notices and were livid about having to pay a fine.
NOT EASY
“I had to pay a penalty of R90 for a month’s delay; this is not easy for a pensioner. Imagine how such penalties affect the less fortunate.
A man in the queue in front of me had to pay R900. The only reason he knew that his licence had expired was that his mechanic drew his attention to the fact that he was displaying a nine-month-old, expired decal,” he said.
A Kloof motorist said he went to the Percy Osborne Road licensing centre and was turned away after failing to produce a proof of residence the officials found acceptable. He said a lot of people were turned away and complained that they had not heard about the new requirements.
Another complaint was that students had difficulty renewing their licences, as they did not have proof of residence, such as utility bills. People who lived in areas without street names, or where addresses were incomplete, could also be affected.
Mngomezulu said: “We announced this and we expect that just like how they were taught to check the licence disc every morning before they start a car when they went for a driving test, they must continue doing so, not shift the responsibility to the traffic department.”
About the proof-of-residence requirement, she said: “Almost everywhere proof of residence is needed.”
The Mercury