Licencing backlog puts brakes on reviving car trade

The vehicle sales industry in South Africa can help restart the economy, but it’s being severely hampered by the delays in licensing of drivers and cars.

A quick fix for the minister of transport, who calls himself Mr Fixit, is to extend expired licences, but instead he announced other measures that will not speed up the process.

It has now become a major issue and the National Automobile Dealers’ Association, a professional body representing the interests of 1 340 businesses that own, operate and manage new and used vehicles, have called on Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula to urgently address extensive administrative delays.

These include document turnaround times and vital operational systems that are drastically affecting car sales.

“This is having a dramatic knock-on effect in the industry with many related businesses unable to do business and secure much-needed income.

“In an economy crying for help, the motor industry has a significant part to play to contribute to its revitalisation.”

According to the association, the sector needed to be supported with the necessary infrastructure commitments.

It welcomed the recent increased capacity across the country for drivers’ licence renewals, but said this was just one part of a chain that supported vehicle trading.

The association also claimed that its requests to assist the department to address these issues have gone unanswered since 24 August. Meanwhile, direct value continued to be lost across the motor industry value chain due to lost deals because of the inability of licensing departments to make transactions possible.

“This is severely hurting the economy that could be forging a better path were it administratively possible.

“In addition, there are many small business entrepreneurs who should be focusing on building their businesses instead of having employees queuing for driver’s licence renewals and new vehicle registrations.”

The association said the vehicle industry was dependent on municipal licensing departments to license, register and issue roadworthy certificates, all key legislative requirements of buying and selling vehicles.

“The backlogs at these departments have resulted in a material slowdown in vehicle sales that could have been mitigated. There are extensive delays at licensing departments nationally. Document turnaround times have shifted from one-day processes to as much as a month or longer.

“The delays in issuing eNatis documents impact sales directly and the shortage of face value eNatis documents is delaying vehicle registrations.

“Roadworthy test centres have additional delays in processing certificates, with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal implementing arbitrary restrictions on the number of car inspections per day.”

Delays in drivers’ licence renewals were also leading to declined finance applications and without a valid licence, new owners could not insure new vehicles.

“The extension of the validity period of learner’s licences, driving licence cards, licence discs, professional driving permits and registration of motor vehicles for a further six to 12 months while the backlogs are worked through will also help.”

The association said this would permit economic activities to function in the interim.

Esethu Hasane, media liaison officer for the minister, said he had seen the letter and made some commitments last week to extend the validity of licences.

– inao@citizen.co.za

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