Currently, the issuing of operating licenses to Taxi operators is the responsibility of the Provincial Regulatory Entities (PREs) in the respective Provinces. In order to determine a national backlog in respect of the issuing of operating licenses to Taxi operators, the Department, on 05 November 2021, requested each of the nine (9) Provinces to submit details of their backlogs, the causes of the delays and indications of when the backlogs will be dealt with.
To date, only seven (7) Provinces have responded, namely the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Northern Cape, Kwa Zulu Natal, Free State, Limpopo and Mpumalanga province. The Gauteng and North West Provinces have not yet responded. The Eastern Cape and Western Cape Provinces have indicated that they have no backlog in respect of issuing of operating licenses to Taxi operators in their Provinces.
There is a combined total of seven thousand nine hundred and twenty (7920) applications in backlog in respect of the issuing of operating licenses to Taxi operators as reported by Kwa-Zulu Natal, Northern Cape, Limpopo and Free State Provinces. The reasons for the delays vary between the slowness and unreliability of the NLTIS system and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is envisioned that the backlog will be dealt with and finalized by 31 March 2022.
The table below depicts the responses received from Provinces in respect of the backlog in numbers, reasons for the delay and envisioned dates to finalize the backlog per Province.
Province |
a) Backlog |
b) Reasons for the delay |
(c) Date to finalize the backlog |
Gauteng |
No response received |
- |
- |
North West |
No response received |
- |
- |
Western Cape |
No backlog reported |
- |
- |
Eastern Cape |
No backlog reported |
- |
- |
Mpumalanga |
No backlog reported |
- |
|
Free State |
821 applications |
Restrictions imposed by the National Lockdown. |
31 March 2022 |
Northern Cape |
2698 applications |
COVID-19 protocols and restrictions |
31 March 2022 |
Kwa-Zulu Natal |
2859 applications |
Taxi operators are not uplifting the operating licenses due to vehicles being repossessed or due to reduced profit collections on operations. |
Applications are cancelled on the system in accordance with the National Land Transport Regulation time-frames. |
Limpopo |
1542 applications |
Lack of evidence of demand/supply of transport information from ITPS of municipalities in the province. |
31 March 2023 |