South Africans with expiring licences won't get 10-year extensions

Gordon_R said:
I got pulled over last month. They didn't care that my card had expired. I went to renew my licence last week. A rainy day in Cape Town. Almost no queue. Done in under an hour...
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Also got pulled over during the COVID year and the cop just gave friendly reminder to renew when possible.
 
Bad Ballie said:
Hopefully the changes to the law will force these complexes to wind their necks in and stay in their lane. Security overreach is a serious problem.
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It's not just complexes. I went to a factory for a site visit. Had to park outside because my license was expired then.
 
Heisenborg said:
That's fine then. Will continue with my expired one
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Having an expired license can delay or complicate insurance payouts. The insurers can be lenient on this, as they technically have to prove the expired license was material to the crash, but its not really a fight you want to be in and it has been an issue for some people.
 
RedViking said:
Why would I have any unpaid fines ?
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I don't know, reasons. Just curious, as I have a policy of not paying fines and if doing license disk renewal online if it checks for that stuff. I have never had issues doing the renewal at the license department.
 
Cius said:
Having an expired license can delay or complicate insurance payouts. The insurers can be lenient on this, as they technically have to prove the expired license was material to the crash, but its not really a fight you want to be in and it has been an issue for some people.
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All decent Insurers will only require you renew before they handle the claim, the same with licence discs.
 
RedViking said:
Ah car license I have a yearly reminder on my phone and just order online.
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I'm lucky, my vehicle licence expires in my birthday month. That's something that's hard to forget...

Cius said:
Having an expired license can delay or complicate insurance payouts. The insurers can be lenient on this, as they technically have to prove the expired license was material to the crash, but its not really a fight you want to be in and it has been an issue for some people.
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I had a crazy experience two decades ago when my car was stolen, and the insurance wanted proof of drivers licence. My broker told them to get lost.

The car hire company refused to give me a loaner, because my licence was inside the stolen vehicle. Amazing what excuses they can come up with...
 
Gordon_R said:
I'm lucky, my vehicle licence expires in my birthday month. That's something that's hard to forget...



I had a crazy experience two decades ago when my car was stolen, and the insurance wanted proof of drivers licence. My broker told them to get lost.

The car hire company refused to give me a loaner, because my licence was inside the stolen vehicle. Amazing what excuses they can come up with...
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I know from experience that you cant hire a car with an expired license. I flew to jhb using said expired license for ID at the airport.
 
I receive an SMS reminder of car licence renewal by the authority each year.

I have been pulled over once a year (since I moved to a small town). No way to avoid the roadblock, as there is only one road into the suburb.
 
Car license is getting easier. The governments ENatis system surprisingly works and is cheaper than my local PickNPay service which I used to use for license renewal. They notify me via email when a license is about to expire, I log in, tick a few boxes, pay via CC, and get it delivered a few days later to my home via courier. Just did one this week for my car license that expires at the end of August. Worth the R99 fee. Last time I tried to use the post office I queued for over an hour. Was not worth the time waste.
 
FiestaST said:
I drove with an "expired" one for about 3 years & a bit. Only reason I got a new is the complex my old man stays flagged my "expired" one & forced me to park outside when I visited him :rolleyes:

Was never pulled over, no fine come renewal time.
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Even if you do get fined, depending on one's personal traveling situation it can be better to just pay the fine and save yourself the anguish of dealing with a disgusting and mentally draining pigsty every few years.

I think my last fine was R1,200, never paid it but that's beside the point, even if I did pay it, it was the first time in probably 7+ years I got pulled over for a license check (just always keep your vehicle disk up-to-date and you're good to go most of the time). Worth the investment.

They can all f**k off, this license extension BS is too little too late.

My last bit of sanity and microscopic willingness to play along died last week when it turns out we now have to hire a trash removal company at our own cost in our complex since the last service we were more or less still getting finally evaporated. I'm not playing anymore.
 
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Wonder how long the government will take to actually make it low. Decided, but not gazetted or whatever as I understand it. Hope they hurry. My license is up for renewal in 6 months.
 
It is better that they let the current license cards expire on their printed date - if they didn't, one difficulty would be trying to explain that your license isn't really expired to an overseas car rental agent. Another potential difficulty is that South African's aren't that great at maths.
 
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