No cash payments will be accepted at Mpumalanga’s licensing centres; instead, people will be expected to pay with a bank card. Moeti Mmusi, the spokesperson for the Mpumalanga Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison, said registration and licensing centres in the province will not be accepting cash as from March 1. Only credit cards, bank cards, and electronic transfers will be accepted. The system was introduced to minimise long queues, robberies and break-ins.

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“We have discovered that when officials go and count the money from their tills, they keep our people waiting in lines rather than attending to them. We also notice that we are attracting criminals to our centres with the cash payments. We do not want to put the lives of our officials and members of the public in danger. Two of our centres were broken into by criminals who stole the money,” he said. Mmusi said they are pleading with members of the public to work with the department even though there are challenges that they will come across with the new payment method, like being offline due to network problems.

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“We have checked all the factors that might affect us and we are prepared to resolve them. Regarding the issue of our system being offline due to a network problem, we are working on it. We hardly have problems with our electronic payment machine,” he said. Mmusi also denied allegations that the payment method had been implemented as a result of officials stealing money from their tills or other forms of corruption. All centres in the City of Mbombela, Thaba Chweu Local Municipality and Nkomazi Local Municipality, and Piet Retief are the first to implement the new payment method.