Ensure a safe festive season: RTMC urges motorists to fix vehicle defects, renew licences
With over a million vehicle licences expiring, the RTMC highlights the safety risks and penalties associated with driving unlicensed vehicles.
Image: Doctor Ngcobo / Independent Newspapers
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has urged motorists to renew their vehicle licences and ensure their cars are roadworthy ahead of festive season travel.
The RTMC said its records indicate that a total of 1 060 382 vehicle licences will be expiring at the end of November.
Most of these vehicles are in Gauteng, where a total of 416 828 will be due for renewal at the end of the month, followed by the Western Cape with 197 797 vehicle licences due for renewal and KwaZulu Natal with 143 293 renewals due.
Vehicle licence renewals due in other province are as follows: Mpumalanga 66 446, Eastern Cape 63 263, Limpopo 58 551, Free State 47 572, North West 44 871, and Northern Cape 21 763.
It said apart from incurring penalties for expired licences, motorists would also face serious consequences if their vehicles were found to have defects including unroadworthy tyres and cracked windscreens, fixing brakes, non-functioning lights and worn-out wipers.
“These are safety critical components especially for people who will be travelling during the rainy and wet conditions this summer. During the festive period last year, vehicle factors contributed 6.9% of total fatal crashes in the country, 65.7% of these was due to tyre bursts and 11.4% due to faulty brakes.
“Headlights that were not switched on (resulting in poor visibility of approaching vehicles) had a 9.5% contribution.”
The organisation said driving with an expired disc incurs penalties that include late renewal fines of 10% of the annual fee for every month the disc is lapsed, potential fines of up to R1,000 if caught by law enforcement, and possible vehicle impoundment.