By Naadiya Adams

Online licence bookings could possibly cost you R250 on the department’s e-Natis system in the near future. In a proposed amendment to the Government Gazette, Minister Fikile Mbalula outlined his plan to further tax South Africa’s motoring community.

For years, the online NaTis system has been marred in pandemonium but the true extent of the problem was only laid bare when the pandemic began to thrive in South Africa.

Two weeks ago the Minister announced an extension for lockdown expired driving licence renewals, making it the third time an extension has been given, compounding the problem even further and the cracks of South Africa’s driving licence system has begun to show.

Currently, millions of motorists remain on the roads with expired driving licences and while they have been given an extended grace period till March 31^st, thousands are still unable to even get a booking now they must pay for a service that is not working in the first place.

The Automobile Association’s Leyton Beard says the amendment is simply outrageous.

“The Government Gazette is quite clear that its an extra amount… what this means for motorists is that people are going to have to pay exorbitant fees to stay on the road and to stay legal, and in our view this is outrageous,” says Beard.

His belief is that people want to be legal on the roads.

“The absolute vast majority of people that we deal with want to be legal on the roads, they want to do the right thing, they want to be solid citizens but its extremely difficult when the price that you have to pay to be legal is incredibly excessive,” explains Beard.

Beard says the mood of the economy and the country was not considered in making the decision.

The Road Traffic Management Corporation has however rejected claims that an additional fee will be charged for licence renewals, they say the confusion arises from a simple misunderstanding.

The RTMC says this is an existing fee paid online and not at the licensing centre as it will save time waiting in queues to pay at till points.

Beard however says the Gazette states in black and white that is an additional fee.

“The fact of the matter is, the government Gazette says that online bookings are going to cost R250, its in our view a logical conclusion that means that the cost of the card is an additional amount and everything else is additional such as the R72 transactional fee,” explains Beard.

The  RTMC has maintained that the fee is not an additional one, but Beard says if that is the case then it needs to be clearly communicated as the Gazette draft amendment and the comments that followed from the RTMC are contradictory.