Licensing trouble ahead
Wrangle over registration system could hit car sales
ASTALEMATE between the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and Tasima over who should administer the National Administration Traffic Information System (enatis) is threatening to derail vehicle licensing across the country.
About 12 million vehicles and 11 million drivers are affected.
RTMC, which falls under the Department of Transport, wants to take over enatis but Tasima, the private operator, won’t let it go despite a Constitutional Court ruling against Tasima in 2016 saying it should hand over the service to the RTMC.
Now the matter is to be heard again, in the North Gauteng High Court next week.
Unless consensus is reached, vehicle owners will be unable to register vehicles, police will not be able to check if vehicles are reported stolen and fines cannot be paid.
Wayne Beadsworth, a manager of pre-owned vehicles at the Audi centre in Durban, said: “This will have a huge impact on our business. Hopefully, they can sort it out because it’s a major issue in terms of profits, opportunity and customer service.”
Beadsworth said some customers had already been victims of the tussle between RTMC and Tasima.
“I was in the dark about this thing until one of my customers failed to register a vehicle to her name as the lines were down.”
This was after Telkom cut voice lines to the system because of non-payment by Tasima.
Beadsworth said dealerships faced the wrath of customers when things went wrong.
“When customers buy a vehicle from us, everything that happens is by Audi. For example, if you give a customer a 21-day permit and we have been unable to get the licensing sorted out, the customer is angry with us, not the licensing department.”
Anand Naicker, manager of new car sales division at Weiss Volkswagen on Mathews Meyiwa Road (Stamford Hill) agreed.
“The motor industry has enough challenges already. I just hope there is a way they could sort this out amicably. As a dealership, we have no contingency plans. People who want to buy cars will find it difficult to do so.”
Ikram Shaik of Moza’s car sales in the city centre said it would be difficult for him to do business.
Prithveraj Deoraj, who owns the Umgeni Testing Station, was also worried.
“This is giving me sleepless nights because if there are no cars coming to my station I can’t put food on the table for my family. I just pray that they sort this out urgently.” AN ENVIRONMENTAL scientist has warned that the fumes from the worst fire to hit Durban in 40 years could affect people with heart and respiratory conditions as well as young children.
Professor Rajen Naidoo, an expert on occupational health at the University of Kwazulu-natal, said the biggest concern was that those with pre-existing respiratory conditions, who live in surrounding areas, would be affected by the smoke inhalation.
“The levels of pollution would have been highest at the point of fire and surrounds. The other concern is what was burning. If it was primarily plastic vapour, then this could be a serious problem depending on the level burnt. It could also have long-term side effects on those who inhaled the vapour.”
Naidoo said the firemen needed special care due to the levels of inhalation they were exposed to and the long hours working to douse the fire.
“All need to be assessed and treated accordingly. ethekwini Municipality has a great occupational health department so hopefully they already have been.”
More than 90 firefighters, three water carriers and 12 fire engines were part of efforts to stop the fire.
ethekwini’s fire chief, Enock Mchunu, said they had worked overnight to contain the fire. “It’s one of our biggest incidents. This is considered to be one of the biggest warehouses in the ethekwini region. We’ve minimised chances of the fire spreading because we managed to stop it at a critical point.”
David Poverello, a manager at the CWT-ASI warehouse, next door to the Sannar Investment warehouse where the fire started, said they had not been aware of the fire for at least 30 minutes before they got a phone call from people at the Transnet building to evacuate.
The CWT-ASI business stores, imports and exports copper products, sodium, sulphur and zinc oxide, among other products. They had managed to save products.
Poverello said the first warehouse had been undergoing repairs and said a cutting torch was suspected to have ignited the fire.
Veterans Alfred Newman and Anthon Swardling, who have been fighting fire disasters for 24 and 30 years respectively, said it was the worst fire they had experienced.
Spokesperson Molatwane Likhethe said Transnet was investigating the cause and costs. – Additional reporting by Nabeelah Shaikh