Fikile Mbalula Wants Motorists to Pay R250 Just to Register for e-Booking Online
- Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has proposed that motorists pay an extra R250 for the e-booking system
- Driver's licence renewals have been extended numerous times with the last extension being March 2022
- The proposed extra payment put forward by Mbalula does not include payments for the renewal of licences or the licences themselves
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Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has brought up the idea of amending the Government Gazette. This will see motorists pay about R250 just for an online booking on the troubled e-Natis system.
The draft put forward was done in September, it will see motorists paying an extra fee. This is just for bookings and does not include actual renewal or driver's licence fees. Reports state that the e-Natis system has caused much trouble in the past with all its issues.
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The lockdown caused by the global pandemic saw driver's licence renewals being extended three times. This shows the grave state of the driving licence system in South Africa. At the time of writing this report, thousands of motorists were unable to book their online licence slots or even perform card renewals.
South Africans, according to News24, are being expected to pay for a troublesome service. Mbalula published an amendment to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) Regulations, 2007 in the Gazette. The number is 45 085, was completed on 3 September, 2021 and is open for comment.
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The draft regulates that e-Natis related services may include extra fees. An example given by the publication is of the fee to be amended at a R250 charge for online bookings for a credit card format driving licence renewal.
A previous report by BusinessLIVE revealed that Mbalula had extended the deadline to renew driver's licences. He reiterated that people should not renew their licences on the eve of the deadline.
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula extends deadline to renew driver's licences to March 2022
Previously, Briefly News reported that Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula announced that the grace period for drivers whose driving licences expired from 26 March 2020 will have until the end of March 2022 to renew their licences.
Mbalula's announcement comes after the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) called on the Transport Minister to reconsider giving motorists an extension because drivers were faced numerous challenges such as long queues at testing centres, according to EWN.
The department has also been plagued with huge backlogs and the Road Traffic Management Corporation’s (RTMC) has stated that there are 500 000 licences waiting to be processed on the system.
Source: Briefly News
