Umm Muhammed Umar

South Africans frustrated with the hours spent in queues to renew their motor vehicle license have now been given advice by the South African Post Office on how to reduce the transaction time. SAPO says motorists can do this by registering on the National Traffic Information System website. The Post Office’s Johan Kruger discussed the process with Radio Islam.

As a result of the COVID pandemic, license renewal has become a huge problem. South Africans were accustomed to receiving a notice in the post, reminding them that their license was due for renewal. Kruger explained that registering on the NATIS website and entering your contact details would allow the system to issue a reminder, or that it would be emailed to you. He said that in the case of an email, the best option would be to print it out and take it along to the post office. Kruger said, “There’s detail on that reminder that cuts the transaction time tremendously.” He said, “when you go to the post office normally with your ID book, then there’s a great deal of information that the teller has to type into the system. It’s quite time consuming. But if you go with a reminder, since all that is already there, all she has to do is type in the reference number which is on your reminder.”

Regarding what documentation one has to provide the Post Office with when renewing a license, Kruger said that all that would be needed would be the printed reminder from NATIS, and one’s ID book.

Interestingly, Post Office branches offer a bulk drop off and collect service for fleet renewals. Kruger said that that was done in a back office. He said that the licenses could be dropped off, an EFT payment had to be made, and then a day or so later, the licenses that have been renewed could be collected.

If there was an outstanding fine which blocked the payment, a license could not be renewed. The fine would first have to be paid at the traffic department.

Despite the online renewal facility for motor vehicle license having been delayed by administrative and legal requirements, Kruger said that the Department intended to launch it in January 2022.

With the holiday season approaching, the post office was also prepared for the substantial increase in applications for fishing licenses. Kruger said that all the post offices had stocked up on licenses, not just the ones at the coast. He added that more than 86 000 fishing licenses had been sold in December 2020 alone. Kruger said, “And if you think back, that was when government banned people going on to the beach, but they forgot to ban fishing. So then of course a lot of people bought fishing licenses because that allowed them to actually go over the beach and enjoy it a little bit.” Kruger advised people who lived inland to buy the fishing license from their local Post Office, so as to avoid encountering long queues.