Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 16-10-2017

Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) has called on Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi to explain the massive increase in eNaTIS vehicle licensing fees.

The minister announced that from 1 February 2018 motor vehicles licencing fees will increase by R30 per transaction which equates to a 71.43% raising it from R42 per transaction to R72 per transaction to be paid to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).

The increases were published in the government gazette.

Last year former Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters increased the transaction fee from R36 to R42 per transaction, an increase of 16.67%.
JPSA’s Howard Dembovsky says Maswanganyi must justify the latest increase.

“JPSA calls on Minister Maswanganyi to explain the whopping increase in transaction fees especially in light of the fact that the RTMC has consistently failed to achieve its mandate with respect to enhancing road safety and reducing the catastrophically high carnage which exists on South Africa’s roads.”

Dembovsky says increases exceeds the current inflation rate.

“The current reported inflation rate in South Africa is 4.8% as at August 2017 and therefore, the latest published transaction fee exceeds the current inflation rate by almost fifteen times.”

He says the RTMC managed to rake in R453 143 790 in transaction fees in the 2016/17 financial year while at the same time the CEO’s salary increased by 31.6 percent, from R5 950 000 to R7 830 000 during the same period.

Dembovsky says the recent termination of the RTMC’s contract with Tasima, which contact was unlawfully renewed by former Minister S’bu Ndebele in 2010, should have had the effect of decreasing the input and maintenance costs of the eNaTIS vehicle and driver registry.