NaTIS is the National Traffic Information System, run by the Road Traffic Management Corporation. It holds the records; it does not issue anything over a counter. Almost every NaTIS query is really a query for the registering authority where you made the application, and NaTIS says so itself.
NaTIS national contacts
- Talk to us: 0861 762 847, which spells 0861 7NaTIS
- Online support: [email protected]
- AARTO enquiries, for traffic fine adjudication: 086 122 7861, Private Bag X112, Halfway House, 1685
- Critical Transaction Centre at the RTMC: 011 266 2169
The escalation order NaTIS asks you to follow
For both vehicle queries and driving licence queries, NaTIS publishes the same two steps: first contact the registering authority where the application was made, then escalate to the provincial representative. Skipping the first step is why so many people report getting nowhere. The registering authority holds your application; the province holds the system access to fix it.
Provincial NaTIS help desks
- Gauteng: 011 891 0001
- KwaZulu-Natal: 033 395 1800
- Eastern Cape: 043 604 8000
- Western Cape: 021 483 5995
- Northern Cape: 053 802 5531
- Limpopo: 015 291 7000
- Mpumalanga: 013 753 8600
- North West head office, Mahikeng: 018 388 1112, and Bojanala district at Rustenburg: 014 592 5375
One caution on the Free State. NaTIS publishes 015 409 8667 as the Free State help desk, but 015 is a Limpopo dialling code and the Free State code is 051. The number as printed appears to carry a transposition, so a Free State caller is better off starting on the national line, 0861 762 847, and asking to be put through.
The site also lists individual officials by name with their direct lines. Those are not reproduced here: officials move, and a direct line that has been reassigned wastes a call. Ask the help desk for the role you need instead.
What NaTIS actually holds
Vehicle registration and licensing records, driving licence records, and the traffic register. It publishes live vehicle population figures and new and used vehicle registration statistics by year, going back to 2017, which is unusually open data for a government system and useful if you are checking a market rather than a car.
The site also carries the learner driver manual, rules of the road, road traffic signs and vehicle controls, plus the AARTO and general road traffic forms. Download the form before you queue; most registering authority delays are caused by an incomplete form rather than by the system.
Reporting fraud
NaTIS publishes a fraud and corruption contact at the Department of Transport. Licence and registration fraud is common enough that it is worth knowing the shape of it: nobody can legitimately sell you a driving licence, fast-track a roadworthy certificate, or clear a vehicle record for a fee. An agent offering to skip the queue at a registering authority for cash is committing an offence, and so is the person paying.
Before you go to a registering authority
- Take your identity document, and proof of address in your own name if the application needs it
- For a vehicle, take the registration certificate and, where required, a roadworthy certificate and the change of ownership form signed by both parties
- Confirm the office hours and whether the office takes bookings, because many now do and walk-ins are turned away
- Keep every receipt: your receipt is what proves a transaction was captured if the record does not update