Pretoria North gives its name to facilities in the northern part of the City of Tshwane, and searches for it appear under both Pretoria North and In Pretoria North. They refer to the same area.
This page covers what to establish before travelling, what to take, and how to confirm arrangements.
TrafficDepartment.co.za is an independent information resource. We are not the City of Tshwane and we do not hold its records, so confirm current arrangements with the office itself or with your municipality before you travel.
Traffic department or licensing centre
These two names get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing. Traffic enforcement, fines and by-law matters sit on one side. Driving licences, learner’s licences, vehicle registration and licence discs sit on the other, at a registering authority or a driving licence testing centre. One town can have both, in different buildings, with different hours.
- Licence and testing matters: driver’s licence and driving licence testing centres.
- Vehicle matters: vehicle licensing and vehicle registration.
- Fines and enforcement: traffic fines.
Establishing which of these your task falls under, before choosing where to go, saves more time than any other preparation.
Pretoria and Tshwane are the same municipality
Pretoria is the city; the City of Tshwane is the metropolitan municipality that contains it, along with Centurion, Akasia, Mabopane, Soshanguve and a wide area beyond. Municipal information is published under Tshwane while people search under Pretoria, and that split is why the same facility appears under two names.
- Search both names when confirming anything about a facility here.
- Centurion was a separate municipality before amalgamation and still names facilities.
- Metro enforcement sits with the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department.
- Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg border Tshwane and run entirely separate systems.
The northern metro
The northern part of Tshwane extends well beyond Pretoria North itself, through Akasia toward Mabopane and Soshanguve. A facility in this area may serve a much larger catchment than its name suggests.
- Confirm which facility handles your transaction before choosing by distance.
- Licensing and enforcement may sit at different sites.
- Arrangements change, so confirm rather than rely on a listing.
- Neighbouring metros run separate systems that do not share records.
Crossing into another metro
Gauteng’s three metros meet along commuter routes, and people live in one and work in another without noticing where the boundary falls. Registration is generally tied to where you are resident, and fines from a neighbouring metro will not appear when you check your own.
- Establish which metro serves your residential address before a registration transaction.
- Check fines against each metro you drive through. See municipal fines.
- The three metros: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.
What to have with you
Requirements depend on the transaction rather than the office, and the single most common cause of a wasted trip is a document that is missing or not accepted.
- Identity document, and the original rather than a copy. See forms for what each transaction needs.
- Proof of address in a form the office accepts, recent enough to qualify. See proof of address.
- The existing licence, disc or vehicle document the transaction relates to.
- Payment in a form the counter takes, which is not always a card.
- Any outstanding fines settled first, since they can block a transaction. See checking outstanding fines.
Confirming the current details
Office arrangements change more often than published listings do. Counters move within a building, a service is withdrawn to another site, hours shift, or a facility closes for a period. Treat any address or time you find online, including on directory sites, as needing confirmation.
- Start from the municipality’s own channel rather than a third party listing.
- See traffic department contact details for how to trace a current number.
- See opening hours for how published hours differ from working hours.
- Other offices in Gauteng: the provincial index.
Why visits fail
Almost every failed visit traces to one of a handful of causes, and each of them is avoidable with a check the day before.
- The office does not handle that transaction, or handles it only on certain days.
- The queue closed to new arrivals well before the doors did.
- A document was rejected as too old, in the wrong name, or of the wrong type.
- The transaction had to be booked and could not be walked in.
- Outstanding fines surfaced at the counter.
Related guides
- Offices in Pretoria
- Centurion
- Pretoria CBD
- Pretoria North
- Waltloo
- Mabopane
- Find a traffic department near you
Frequently asked questions
Is Pretoria North a separate municipality?
No. It falls under the City of Tshwane.
Which facility should I use?
The one that handles your transaction, confirmed by phone rather than chosen by distance.
How early should I arrive?
Before opening where possible, and away from month end.