Minister launches online vehicle registration and transfer platform

GOVERNMENT, working together with the private sector, can deliver for South Africa, says Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga.

She was speaking at the launch of a digital vehicle registration and transfer of ownership system in partnership with WeBuyCars yesterday.

The Transport Ministry said the public-private partnership marked a pivotal moment in the department’s move to improve delivery of services in traffic management.

The initiative follows the implementation of the Electronic National Traffic Information System (eNatis) in 2007 and the launch of an online vehicle licensing system in 2022.

The minister said the new online registration and transfer of ownership system was aimed at mitigating the burdensome workload experienced by registering authorities, empowering officials to improve their performance in several other areas.

“The primary objective of the online service is to provide a digital platform that efficiently resolves the current challenges related to administration of registration certificates” said Chikunga.

She said a secure interconnection between systems would facilitate the instant processing of transactions and, as a result, eNatis would ensure the accurate record of ownership properly reflecting any modification.

“An additional benefit lies in the continuous availability of the service encompassing all seven days of the week. This enables a reduction in processing times for the industry outside of regular business hours and weekends, enhancing the security and efficiency of trade operations.”

WeBuyCars CEO and founder Faan van der Walt said this was a revolutionary step forward for vehicle registration in South Africa.

“We are extremely proud and excited to be among the first to pilot a registration and notice of change of ownership system with the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and the Department of Transport.”

Van der Walt said over the past two years, WeBuyCars had engaged in extensive development and testing alongside the RTMC.

“This wasn’t easy, and it’s quite an achievement. Today we are proud to be the first to operationalise the prescribed national legislation around online motor vehicle registrations.”