Here are the reasons behind your car license renewal delay

The Covid-19 pandemic has overwhelmed many private and government sectors in South Africa, and the Department of Transport is no exception.

Due to restrictions during the hard lockdown months, 2.7 million vehicle licences expired across the country.

With the closure of many traffic departments – due to positive Covid-19 cases – and difficult access for people with comorbidities, over 800,000 of those expired licences remain outstanding.

This is just one of the many factors that have created a massive backlog with regards to processing at the licensing offices, said Chris Cousens, managing director of CarLicence.co.za, a private licence renewal service.

The service has come under fire recently after some users experienced delays.

Cousens said the massive problem had been further exacerbated by the Department of Transport’s Covid-19 strategy plans, which were aimed at keeping staff and customers safe.

“The department has divided its staff into teams to ensure redundancy and continuity should a Covid case be picked up. One of the teams are on duty one week while another team will be on duty the following week. This not only ensures that if there is a Covid-19 outbreak among the one group that there is another group that is unaffected and able to continue processing but also reduces the amount of staff that are in the building,” he said.

However, he said this obviously had slowed down the process.

Cousens said the fact that the South African Post Office has taken over the social grant payments had also put a strain on the licence renewal ecosystem.

“People are avoiding the post offices as they do want to stand in the queue, which in turn puts pressure on the other bodies, such as ourselves,” he said.

Cousens also said delays often occurred when the person had outstanding fines, the licence had expired or there were outstanding penalties or documents.

Then there were instances where supporting documentation was required and these were not received in a usable format.

“We have had cases where ID photos are cut off, or the proof of address is older than three months. The correct documents will have to be sent and any outstanding fines or penalties need to be paid before the process can be completed,” he explained.

“We process thousands of renewals everyday and with these difficult times we urge people to exercise some forward planning. Do not leave things until the last minute and ensure that all the documentation is correct. This will help us ensure that we provide you with the best service and the quickest turnaround time we possibly can,” he said.

Cousens said only a small amount of individuals had experienced issues and the average turnaround time in KwaZulu-Natal was around 10 working days.

“We are pushing as hard as we can, and we are truly passionate about this service which we feel is unbelievably valuable and important to help keep people safe in this current environment,” he added.

This article first appeared on Berea Mail and was republished with permission.

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