About the Motor Licensing Bureau

Provincial Offices

The Motor Licensing Bureau’s, Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Pinetown, Newcastle and Ulundi collectively have a staff establishment of 237 consisting of 205 filled posts and 32 vacant posts. The 67 Registering Authority agents contracted to the Motor Licensing Bureau for the registration and licensing function throughout KwaZulu-Natal also collectively represent a staff compliment of ±700. The Motor Licensing Bureau undertakes agency support for the latter mentioned Registering Authority staff, and in addition, also undertakes the conducting of regular inspections at these offices, situated throughout KwaZulu-Natal.

Registering Authorities

The Bureau currently controls 67 Registering Authority agents situated throughout the province consisting of: 23 Post Offices (11 Post Office outlets perform the full function and 12 perform the renewal of motor vehicle licensing function. The latest post offices opened were Nongoma and Kwangwanase.); 37 Local Authorities; 1 Magistrates Office and 6 Provincial Licensing Offices.

Furthermore, owing to the high levels of fraud and corruption encountered at the Umhlanga and Verulam Registering Authorities and the geographic location of the Durban and Umbilo Motor Licensing offices, the Bureau has identified a critical need to open up three additional provincial licensing offices in the Umhlanga, Verulam and Chatsworth areas. The latter will not only curb the high level of fraud and corruption encountered, but will also greatly enhance service delivery, by creating greater access to the Department’s services. The opening of additional outlets will be done in terms of current legislation, which empowers the Minister of Transport to identify and declare registering authorities. To cater for the opening of the proposed 3 additional registration and licensing outlets in the Durban Metropolitan area, approximately R2.9 million is required, as a once-off, to implement this proposal during the forthcoming 3 year period, with the personnel costs reoccurring each year at an estimated amount of 2.2 million.

As a result of continual financial irregularities at the Nongoma TLC, the Minister of Transport has approved the withdrawal of the motor vehicle registration and licensing function from this office. In an effort to ensure a continuity of the service to the Nongoma motoring public, the South African Post Office has agreed to perform the licence renewal function at the Nongoma Post Office with effect from 1 April 2002. Further, the Ulundi Motor Licensing Bureau are performing the full registration and licensing function for ‘NND" (Nongoma) vehicles. The Nongoma motoring public were not required to change their licence mark, hence the "NND" licence mark was retained.

NaTIS Contract

To further ensure the value for money, the Bureau has ensured or rather secured its presence on the National Department of Transport’s tender committee for the adjudication’s of the NaTIS maintenance contracts i.e. software and hardware. A senior member of staff from the Motor Licensing Bureau has been appointed as a member of this committee, to award this contract that cost KwaZulu-Natal alone approximately R3.5 million per annum. The Bureau has ensured its presence at this forum considering the amount of the tender to be awarded as well as to ensure that the province achieves true value for money in terms of the NaTIS. The new contract was concluded on 1 February 2002, by the National Department of Transport.

Finance

Revenue Collection
Revenue control and the monitoring thereof takes place on a monthly basis and the Bureau’s revenue collected for 2001/2002 was R 341 446 062-00, including the sale of 3 063 Personalised Licence Numbers, which revenue amounted to R4 695 579-00.

Expenditure to Date (Motor Licencing Bureau)
The Motor Licensing Bureau was allocated a budget of R39 641 251-00 for the 2001/2002 financial year, of which R14 906 895-00 is for Personnel related expenditure and the balance of R24 734 356-00 is for operational costs. This Budget represents 12% of the actual revenue collected.

Expenditure / Budget Spent and Commitments

Motor Licencing Bureau

Traffic Camera Office

Delegations of Authority

With the introduction of the new Public Finance Management Amendment Act 1 of 1999 and new Road Traffic Act (Act 93 of 1996), the Motor Licensing Bureau reviewed all its applicable delegations in terms of the latter mentioned acts and for the purposes of efficiency and customer service proposed the revision of such delegations in terms of rank and applicable amounts. The Motor Licensing Bureau administers its own budget in terms of salaries and service procured as well as its own correspondence be it National, provincial or the ordinary man in the street.

Achievements

The Motor Licensing Bureau continues to be the pace setters with regards to the sale of Personalised Licence Numbers, which was introduced in 1997, with the Eastern and Western Cape following in 1999, Gauteng Province in 2000. All these Provinces visited KwaZulu-Natal, and with the assistance of the dynamic Choice Numbers team, duplicated the procedures utilised by KwaZulu-Natal.

The Bureau did again win the prestigious silver Batho Pele award i.e. the Pricewater House Coopers Premiers Good Governance Award, and achieved the second highest accolade in this respect. The National Department of Transport has given the KwaZulu-Natal motor Licensing Bureau a 95% rating for the administration of the NaTIS in this province and in this regard has earned the highest rating as compared nationally.

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