South Africa’s new driver licence system is a money-making scheme: Outa
Civil society group Outa says South Africa’s move to offer vehicle and driving licences online will open the door to further corruption.
Speaking to radio station 702, Outa chief executive Wayne Duvenage pointed to the significant additional fees that motorists will be required to pay to use the online system – over and above what they typically for licence costs.
Duvenage said motorists can expect to pay administration costs of R150 for certain services, while the cost of getting your driver licence through the online system will now cost in excess of R530, he said.
This means that what is supposed to be a government service has turned into a money-making scheme, he said.
“What happens is that these services which were paid for by taxes and funded by Treasury, leading to less oversight, and that is where the money-making takes place.
“If we have to go we will go to the courts. But at the moment we just want to enquire and get Treasury involved. If we don’t get on top of this then we are going to see a lot of abuse of power and a lot of wasted money.”
While it is positive that the government was finally offering these services digitally, it is important to watch the costs involved, Duvenage said.
“A number of years ago the RTMC was getting R30 a transaction and it is now up to R70 a transaction. Every time a vehicle licence is changed or a driver licence is renewed they get a fee. So on top of that, they want to slap on these massive additional administration fees.
“We need to have an efficient government, but we also need to have a government at the lowest cost of production to society. They cannot develop these massive profit centres and then misspend the money – that is really futile and not acceptable.”
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