fraudulent driver's licence
Office found guilty and charged for issuing fraudulent South African driver’s licence. Image: File/Fotor Image: File

Home » First-hand account of renewing a licence on eNatis

First-hand account of renewing a licence on eNatis

All round a rather positive experience of what it was like to use the government-backed National Traffic Information System (eNATIS)…Read on

By Ray Leathern
06-03-24 09:01
in Business
fraudulent driver's licence
Office found guilty and charged for issuing fraudulent South African driver’s licence. Image: File/Fotor Image: File

I have a love/hate relationship with the National Traffic Information System, as you may know. I recently had the opportunity to renew my licence online through the aforementioned government system and here’s a first-hand account of how things went.

NATIONAL TRAFFIC INFORMATION SYSTEM

National Traffic Information System
Here’s how user friendly the National Traffic Information System is to renew a vehicle licence in South Africa. Image: File

Perhaps I should qualify that I’ve written tens of articles on vehicle licences and the best and cheapest places to renew them. I kept writing these articles because The South African audience kept responding to them. Required annually, I suppose, there’s clearly a lot of interest on the topic of online licence renewal in SA.

Firstly, I received a notification from the National Traffic Information System about a month ago via email saying my vehicle licence was due for renewal. All the information/dates checked out (in case it was a phishing scam) and it even alerted me that I had 21-days grace beyond the expiry date.

ONLINE LICENCE RENEWAL

National Traffic Information System
Forget these coloured application forms. Using the National Traffic Information System is all digital and takes less than five minutes. Image: File

Being litigious, I checked back through all my old articles, compared various services for renewing my vehicle licence and wanted to know what documents I needed to produce. However, going directly through the National Traffic Information System circumvented all that complication. I simply clicked and registered on the eNATIS website. All you have to do is enter you basic particulars like ID number and postal address to create a profile. Better still, it services the entire country for vehicle licences (but only Gauteng and Eastern Cape for driver’s licence applications).

With the registration out the way, you simply need to confirm the licence plate number you’re renewing and confirm a delivery address for the disc that will be couriered to you. This was going way too easily, I thought to myself. Then, to pay, I confirmed a one-time pin (OTP) from my bank and the transaction was complete. As far as cost goes, over and above the actual cost for your car licence that we’ve broken down HERE, there was a R72 admin fee and R99 courier fee, so R171 in total.

ENATIS SYSTEM IN SOUTH AFRICA

There’s a 21-day grace period for expired vehicle licences in South Africa. Don’t be caught because the fine is far worse than just renewing your licence through eNATIS. Image: File.

From the time I received the National Traffic Information System email, to registering and paying for the renewal, took no more than five minutes. It’s taken far longer to write this article, in fact. I was promised the disc would be delivered within five working days. Meanwhile, the disc arrived in three. Better still, SkyNet couriers were excellent with their communication. They messaged me at each step of the disc’s journey and I knew the exact day my brand-new licence disc would arrive.  

Of course, over the months, I’ve gone into the minutia of various licence disc renewal services. From the WhatsApp service Disky, to the Shoprite Money Market. But I’ve got first-hand experience of the process now and I can tell you quite simply that for sheer ease of use, the National Traffic Information System can’t be beat. After all, millions of taxpayer Rands went into its development … so you might as well enjoy the benefits.

NEXT READ: MUST pensioners reapply for SASSA Old-Age Grants April 2024?

Tags: eNATIS featured FZaOlla Important motor vehicle licence South Africa