{"id":652742,"date":"2026-06-10T09:59:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=652742"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:02:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T08:02:38","slug":"serious-problem-with-uber-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/652742-serious-problem-with-uber-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Serious problem with Uber in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three months after the registration deadline for e-hailing operators in South Africa passed, the country’s largest ride-hailing platform, Uber, continues to operate without its e-hailing certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the government and law enforcement agencies potentially risk legal fallout if they act against the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Land Transport Amendment Act (NLTAA) introduced formal recognition and laws governing e-hailing services in South Africa on 12 September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new regulations require that e-hailing operators register their apps with the National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR) and meet various legal incorporation, safety, and branding requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drivers on the platforms are also required to get a licence in their provinces of operation, undergo comprehensive criminal background checks and profile verification, and visibly brand their vehicles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Platforms which allow unlicensed drivers or unapproved vehicles on their networks could be fined R100,000 or be deactivated on the NPTR registry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the gazetting of the new regulations, e-hailing companies were given 180 days to register with the NPTR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roughly a month before the deadline, the transport department said it had received applications from 10 companies. That increased to 12 over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just three companies were registered before the deadline \u2014 Wanatu, Bolt, and Maxim. A fourth operator \u2014 InDrive \u2014 announced it secured its registration in late May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other eight operators have yet to announce successful registration. Despite this, several of them have continued to operate, including Uber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transport department had previously hinted at extending the grace period due to the administrative backlog in processing applications, but no official extension has been gazetted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the present circumstances, law enforcement authorities are technically empowered to impound vehicles belonging to Uber’s drivers, unless they have obtained a licence through a competing platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Uber drivers also contract with Bolt. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for a traffic official to determine whether the driver was on an Uber or Bolt trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A Bolt vehicle for hire parked in a public parking area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband previously asked the Department of Transport what was delaying the NPTR’s approval of Uber’s registration in early May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi said an announcement regarding the e-hailing registration process would be made during the department’s budget speech on Tuesday, 12 May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speech did not include any updates on progress in registering the remaining eight operators. We followed up again with Msibi in early May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also asked Uber for an update on the status of its registration, but it did not provide feedback by the time of publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technically speaking, Uber is operating unlawfully in South Africa, even though it has applied to be registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulations do not regard an application before the deadline as sufficient to operate lawfully. Operators must be in possession of a registration certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NLTA Act prescribes specific timelines for processing applications. Members must meet frequently to ensure that applications are processed within 60 days of receipt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Uber has confirmed it submitted its application “well before” the deadline, it is unclear whether it allowed for at least 60 days of processing time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wanatu submitted its application on 25 November 2025 and received its registration certificate on 12 February 2026, a turnaround of 84 days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excluding weekends and public holidays, the turnaround drops well below 60 days. Bolt submitted its application sometime in November 2025 and received its certificate on 27 February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its turnaround from application to certificate issuance was therefore 89\u2013119 days. Excluding weekends and public holidays, the turnaround ranges from 62 to 82 working days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uber confirmed it submitted its application by 17 February 2026. Counting until 8 June 2026, 111 calendar days and 74 business days had passed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is still unclear whether the NPTR or Uber is to blame for the delay. If Uber had followed the letter of the law, it would have suspended its services after the deadline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, that action would threaten the livelihoods of more than 40,000 contract drivers on its platform in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three months after the registration deadline for e-hailing operators in South Africa passed, the country’s largest ride-hailing platform, Uber, continues to operate without its e-hailing certificate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":646182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[89556,71718,63229,101117,103474,49389,20853,98577],"class_list":["post-652742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-collen-msibi","tag-e-hailing-apps","tag-e-hailing-services","tag-national-land-transport-amendment-act-nlta","tag-national-public-transport-regulator-nptr","tag-ride-hailing-services","tag-uber","tag-wanatu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652742"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652742"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653223,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652742\/revisions\/653223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}