“A R444 fee is worth it for the convenience of not having to queue at a municipal office or traffic department to renew your vehicle licence.”
This is what one of Munier’s colleagues thought of Pick n Pay’s new online licence renewal service.
So, in addition to what you would normally pay for your disk, you then fork out a R345 admin fee to PnP as well as a R99 delivery fee.
“I must be j..” muttered Munier.
“I’ll rather go queue at the Civic Centre than pay R444,” he said, and that’s exactly what he did on Monday morning.
Bright and early, he parked outside and entered the building at 8.45am.
The dreaded “long queue” was a handful of people waiting in socially-distanced chairs.
Covid protocols observed. Tick.
Inside the motor vehicle registration and licensing department itself, it was ordered and organised as well.
Within 20 minutes, Munier had his number called, paid his R648, and walked out new licence in hand. Tick again.
Thank you, City of Cape Town.
Point proven. R444? Ha!
Except, when Munier got back to his car, his heart sank when he caught sight of a Traffic Services officer writing him a ticket.
You see, Munier had made the fatal mistake of removing his old disk to take it inside to the licensing department.
And in that 20 minutes, the officer had pounced and written him a R500 fine for “failing to display disk”.
“But here’s my new disk, officer,” remonstrated Munier, holding up the paper.
“I came here to the Civic Centre to get my new disk.”
Alas, the officer said she could not cancel the ticket. It was already recorded in the book. Literally carved in stone.
There was no reasoning with her. She had that typical, pedantic City of Cape Town “rules are rules” attitude.
She advised Munier to go to the municipal court to have it quashed.
The municipal court is a five-minute walk away in the Golden Acre, but that was a pointless exercise too, as there was nothing they could do.
The fine had not reached the court yet, and Munier would have to wait for March/April for a summons to be issued first.
Munier was absolutely fuming, boiling with rage.
Instead of gloating to his colleagues about how he saved R444, he found himself R500 in the hole. Swak!
So mense, the final verdict is, going to have your licence renewed is not an all-day super-spreader event.
Get there early and it’s a quick in-and-out.
But whatever you do, DO NOT remove that disk from your windscreen.
Traffic cops – the ones Munier has dealt with anyway – are ticket-writing machines with no sense of reason and even less people skills.
With all due respect to Pick n Pay, if you decide to go for the online option, try the paycity.co.za website.
You’ll have to register first.
The site says an application takes around six minutes to complete. It then takes between 5-12 business days to deliver your new disk via the post office – if all goes according to plan.
The service is free and the only charge is the actual licence fee.
You can also register, renew and pay for your licence disc through the NaTIS online platform at online.natis.gov.za.
Good luck.
taariq.halim@inl.co.za