Cape Town - The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) has welcomed the Western Cape’s Government’s new Online Portal for Public Transport Licensing, which was launched on Monday, 24 April.
The Citizen Online Portal, which was officially launched by the MEC of Mobility Ricardo Mackenzie, was developed by the provincial government in 2019 for the Western Cape Public Transport Regulation System (PTRS) following technical challenges with the national permitting system.
The new portal will allow applicants to apply online from anywhere, monitor and track the status of their application, receive notifications on outstanding actions, view receipts and decision letters and access a digital summary of their operating licences and other information.
Mandla Hermanus, chairperson of Santaco in the Western Cape, has welcomed the new portal saying the system will benefit their operators.
‘’We are pleased to see the progress with the PRE online system and the commitment this morning to providing assistance to our operators so they can benefit from using this online portal,’’ said Hermanus.
The department said the launch of the online portal, which is the Provincial Regulatory Entity (PRE) oversees and processes public transport licensing in the Western Cape, has extended its digital footprint to allow citizens to apply online for public transport operating licences.
“This new portal does not take away any of the existing methods for interacting with the PRE (at the office or via email), but is an additional option to improve convenience and accessibility for operators.”
It said since the portal went live on 1st March to date, 1530 citizens have registered accounts, and 721 applications for operating licences have been lodged.
Mackenzie said he is pleased to see that key public transport stakeholders who participated in the development of the online portal attended the launch, including Golden Arrow Bus Services, Santaco, the metered taxi industry, and small bus operators.
“The PRE also announced that they will conduct a registration drive and provide training across the province to assist operators with the portal. Our continued aim is to improve service delivery within this crucial regulatory environment through technology and innovation,” said Mackenzie.
Bronwen Dyke-Meyer from Golden Arrow said the bus company welcomes the launch of the Provincial Regulatory Entity’s (PRE) online licensing system.
“We fully support any initiative which seeks to improve efficiencies within the licensing process and believe that this initiative will certainly streamline the process further,” said Dyke-Meyer.