Ride-hailing company inDrive has urged South African regulators to use data from e-hailing platforms to set operating permit numbers. It says provincial caps fall well short of actual demand, and drivers face enforcement for permits they cannot obtain.
In an interview with Business Explainer, Mary-Anne Momoh-Ige of inDrive said national government had done the difficult work by bringing e-hailing into the public transport licensing system. She said the gap now lies with provincial regulatory entities. Platforms hold detailed demand and supply data generated by their AI tools. She argued that provinces should use it to guide town-planning rules and raise the number of permits available, instead of applying caps she described as unrealistic.
More than a year after the National Land Transport Amendment Act and its regulations were gazetted in September 2025, Momoh-Ige said several provinces had still not properly started issuing operating licences. Some were unsure whether to accept manual applications. Others had committed to digital systems they had not yet fully deployed. Meanwhile, traffic and municipal officials in parts of the country were impounding vehicles, leaving drivers unable to comply.
| e-Hailing in South Africa | Status |
|---|---|
| Law and regulations gazetted | September 2025 |
| Legal status of e-hailing | Recognised mode of public transport |
| Driver requirements | Individual operating licence, criminal check, panic button, branding |
| Pending applications, North West | 3,000 to 5,000 |
| Gauteng digital licensing system | Launched October 2026; backlog dates to 2009 |
| inDrive commission, Johannesburg and Pretoria | 1%, 1 October to 31 December 2026 |
| EV and CNG vehicles on inDrive in SA | Under 10% of supply |
| Inland 95 petrol, October 2026 | R30.25 a litre |
The backlog is visible across provinces. The North West regulator has reported 3,000 to 5,000 pending applications. Gauteng launched a digital public transport licensing system this month, which provincial transport MEC Kedibone Diale-Tlabela said should clear a backlog dating back to 2009. Under the new rules, each driver needs an individual licence that limits where they may pick up passengers.
Momoh-Ige said platforms run facial recognition to stop drivers from sharing or renting out accounts, which she said is common in South Africa. Without access to government identity and licence databases, however, verifying tens of thousands of users is largely manual. In other African markets, she said, inDrive’s systems integrate with government databases. These flag expired documents and give authorities trip start and end points when incidents occur, which has helped reduce safety incidents.
She cautioned that greater state interest in platform data must not become automatic access. In her view, data protection should come first, with disclosures made case by case where a clear need is shown. She also said AI tools must operate under human oversight. At inDrive, when an automated system flags suspicious behaviour and blocks a user, support agents contact both parties and the user can appeal.
On fares, she said inDrive’s AI suggests a baseline price, from which passengers and drivers negotiate. The agreed fare does not change during the trip. She contrasted this with time-based pricing on rival apps, under which riders in congested cities such as Lagos can pay double the quoted fare. She said drivers on inDrive can decline trips without being penalised.
Fuel costs are the immediate pressure. The inland price of 95 octane petrol passed R30 a litre this month. Momoh-Ige said drivers were already planning protests to demand higher fares, while commuters are parking their cars to save money. To ease the strain, inDrive has cut its commission to 1% in Johannesburg and Pretoria until 31 December. She said electric and compressed natural gas vehicles make up less than 10% of its local supply. In other markets, the company has worked with governments to convert petrol vehicles to gas.
She said public investment should go into affordable data access, digital skills, digital payments, electronic identity verification and cleaner vehicles. The company has also funded free public Wi-Fi in parks in Khayelitsha and Soweto. inDrive plans to bring its inDrive Money lending product to Africa. The aim is to help drivers buy vehicles instead of paying weekly fees to fleet owners.