Problems with national system slows down City licensing services
03 December 2020
The National Traffic Information System (NaTIS) manages vehicle licensing services. The City is an agent for the national authorities and unfortunately, the national system has been experiencing technical difficulties across the country. This has led to the system being slow at times and being offline on a number of occasions, which causes delays with vehicle licensing and renewals that are outside of the City’s control. We regret any inconvenience and encourage motorists to please make use of the City’s e-Service option where possible.
The City regrets delays and extended queues and waiting times at our vehicle licensing offices, and apologises to vehicle owners. We ask for their understanding while the national authority in charge of the NaTIS, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) resolves the problems. It is outside of the City’s control, but we are working with the service provider to see to it that problems are resolved as soon as possible when they occur.
The City also has not been provided with adequate numbers of NaTIS terminals by the RTMC to service the 1,3 million registered vehicles in Cape Town. The City is ready to expand its vehicle licensing offices but is unable to do so until it receives additional terminals from the RTMC. As a result, our staff are having to work after hours and over weekends to process the large volumes of vehicle registrations and renewals.
We have been informed that additional terminals have become available and we hope that we will receive these in the not too distant future.
Please consider using the City’s e-Services for licensing and please note there are high transaction volumes due to the COVID-19 country-wide backlogs. For planning purposes, factor in approximately three weeks from application to receipt of the license through the Post Office.
Also note, the COVID-19 resurgence could impact operations again going forward. The City will communicate further in due course.
For vehicle licensing:
Customers are reminded of the following National Transport regulations (note fines are nationally determined, the City may not unilaterally write off fines):
Discs that expired on 31 October 2020: should have been renewed by 23 November 2020
Discs that expired on 30 November 2020: renew by 22 December 2020
Discs that expire on 31 December 2020: renew by 22 January 2021
Motor trade vehicle numbers/trade plates: should have been renewed by 30 November 2020
Driver’s and learner’s licenses: renew by 31 January 2021 (these are for licenses that were up for renewal between 26 March, and 31 August 2020)
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
