The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) this week officially launched its online payment gateway for licence renewals on the Natis site.
This comes almost six months after the RTMC announced in August 2021 that the system had already launched, with “technical and legal requirements” cited as the reasons for the delay.
The new online gateway allows motorists to renew their driver’s licence cards and vehicle licence discs and have the documents delivered to their doorstep, as well as register a change of vehicle ownership, thereby skipping long lines at driver’s licence testing centres (DLTCs).
However, transport minister Fikile Mbalula said that motorists who want to renew their driver’s licence cards on the online Natis system must still visit a physical DLTC to get their fingerprints captured and to complete eye examinations, while the rest of the services can now be rendered completely online.
Applicants are still allowed to hand in third-party eye tests from certified optometrists but must visit a DLTC to do so.
He also said that the online system will relieve some of the pressure currently put on DLTCs and that motorists can now expect a visit to a DLTC to only take around 20 minutes, reported MyBroadband.
State of the art
In a recent interview on Talk 702, Mbalula said that the new online payment gateway is “very up to scratch and up to date” and that “it is not possible” for hackers and fraudsters to break in to the system.
Should this happen, he said there are online customer service agents on hand to assist with any grievances.
Furthermore, Mbalula said that his department is currently working with the Health Professionals Council (HPC) of South Africa to introduce the online submission of eye tests by certified optometrists, which would further cut down on time spent at DLTCs.
He said that pilot programmes are currently being run and that this system will be online “in no time.”
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