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In an effort to improve service delivery and enable people at vehicle registration centres to renew their vehicle registrations on time, the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Legislature has introduced a law that permits the renewal of Driving Licence discs/permits at any of the Driving Licence Testing Centres located in the Transport Department’s various regions throughout the Province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The introduction of this law is one of the steps that have been taken by the Transport Department that seeks to minimise the number of vehicles that are on the road with expired driving licence discs. This was mainly caused by drivers failing to reach vehicle registration centres on time as people were faced with the challenge of having to travel long distances from various parts of KwaZulu-Natal to be serviced far from their communities, only to reach long queues at the renewal centres.

Hence, there have been complaints from drivers about the challenge of having to renew their vehicle registrations only at the centre where their vehicles were originally registered.

This legislation has been applauded by most people, even though some expressed disappointment, particularly those owners of personalised licence plates who will not benefit from this new system, but will continue to use the old system.

Commenting on the adoption of this new system KZN MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Mr Willies Mchunu said: “This is one of government’s programmes to innovate and provide people with higher standards of service delivery by bringing development to the people. It is clearly evident that government continues to cater for the needs of the people through its various innovative programmes, such as the adoption of this vehicle registration system.”

“This system will make it easier for drivers to renew their vehicle registrations and obtain discs at centres located in their respective regions without having to travel long distances, and also, it will reduce the number of vehicles travelling on our roads without being permitted to do so,” Mr Mchunu said.

It should be noted that this system only permits vehicle registration centres to renew vehicle registrations that have expired, and not to issue any change of ownership or new registrations to vehicles that have not been registered previously.

Mr Mchunu explained: “With this decision, we are hoping to reduce the number of vehicles that are on our roads with expired vehicle registration discs. Also, we are pleased to know that this will greatly increase revenue in government, which will be used to repair damaged roads.”

Mchunu urged all drivers to welcome and utilise this system to their own benefit. “From now on, we will very closely monitor all those drivers that are caught with expired discs while they have been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to renew them closer to their homes, without incurring major travelling costs,” he concluded.