People who lose or destroy a motor vehicle registration or deregistration certificate can apply for a duplicate, according to the government’s service guidance.
The applicant must be the vehicle’s title holder and apply in person at a registering authority. This concerns a vehicle document, not replacement of a driving-licence card.
Bring an identity document and proof of residential address. If a utility account is in someone else’s name, the guidance calls for that person’s affidavit confirming where the applicant lives, with the account attached.
For an informal-settlement address, it lists a ward councillor’s letter bearing an official date stamp.
The required forms are the Application for Duplicate Registration/Deregistration Certificate, known as DRC, and the Declaration in Respect of Lost Documents, known as DCT. They are available from the registering authority.
Contact the local licensing office for the prescribed fee. The official guide gives up to seven days for processing; confirm current arrangements rather than treating that estimate as guaranteed collection.
Service information checked on 8 November 2026. No application was submitted or appointment system tested.
Contextual motoring archive: an N10 road sign in the Northern Cape, photographed on 14 September 2009, not a registering authority or application scene. Photo: NJR ZA / Wikimedia Commons. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:South_Africa-N10-001_(cropped).jpg . Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ . Source cropped by Waddie96 in 2018; further cropped and resized for display. Display adaptations are licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
