No licence reminder? It's up to you!

Licence disk. 140312. Picture: Chris Collingridge 351

Licence disk. 140312. Picture: Chris Collingridge 351

Published Jan 29, 2016

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Johannesburg - Motorists across the country have been complaining for some months that they haven’t been getting reminders to renew their vehicle licences.

While this apparent failure has been variously blamed on the Post Office, the RTMC or eNaTIS, the City of Cape Town on Thursday said it was the national agencies that weren’t sending out reminders. In truth, the RTMC Act doesn’t place a duty on this agency to send out licence renewal reminders, but it has done so since it was formed - and the R36 transaction fee we pay on eNaTIS transactions goes to the RTMC to cover them.

So it’s still not clear whether the specific point of failure is at the Post Office, the RTMC or eNaTIS itself.

Cape Town to tackle license chaos

Nevertheless, says Justice Project South Africa chairman Howard Dembovsky, checking the validity of the vehicle’s licence disc is part of the pre-trip inspection you should be doing before driving - not just at the K53 driving licence test - so it’s up to you to check it regularly and to be aware when it’s due for renewal.

And if you have’t received a reminder, you’ll have to fill in a form ALV.

It seems Post Office staff are particularly fond of telling people who have tried unsuccessfully to renew their licence disc that a warrant of arrest has been issued.

If you’re in the Mother City, says Dembovsky, that could be true. The City of Cape Town places a block on eNatis if the owner of the vehicle has an outstanding warrant of arrest, but it’s very unlikely to happen anywhere else in the country. The most likely cause of a licence disc not being issued is an outstanding enforcement order issued under the AARTO Act - which also blocks thwe renewal of driving licenses and Professional Driving Permits.

The Justice Project published an advisory on this mnatter in October 2015, but it still gets lots of enquiries from panicked members of the public who’ve been misled and unduly intimidated by alarmist statements from Post Office counter staff.

WHAT ONLINE FACILITY?

On 31 October 2014 the national department of transport published in government gazette No.38142 that motorists could use an online facility on its website to verify and update their address details on the eNaTIS system - but no such facility apparently exists on either the department of transport or the RTMC’s website.

While there is such a facility on the City of Cape Town website, it only applies to vehicles registered in Cape Town.

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