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- Motorists in Gauteng will be able to apply for new number plates from 1 April, according to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
- The number plates will be tamper-proof, have a QR code linked to the owner of the vehicle and notify authorities when the vehicle crosses the border.
- Motorists will be required to get the new licence plates installed when they renew their licence discs.
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Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has said motorists in the province must start applying for new high-tech number plates from 1 April this year - a matter in which they will not have a choice.
The decision to introduce the new number plates, which will seemingly be tamper-proof and enable authorities to detect if someone crosses the border, was taken after Gauteng ran out of new numbers and letters to assign to vehicles, Lesufi said.
"From 1 April in Gauteng, we are revamping the car registration numbers of all the cars. We are starting afresh, all of us. Every person that has a car must re-register and get a new registration number that can’t be copied, can’t be removed and is reliable," said Lesufi.
Lesufi was speaking on 13 February at an event announcing that the Gauteng provincial government had partnered with Vumacam to use data from the nearly 7 000 closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras under its control. It is hoped that this will improve the response of the province to crime.
READ | 'Gatvol' Lesufi teams with Vumacam's CCTV network to fight crime in Gauteng
Lesufi explained that the new number plate system is also intended to clamp down on crime, with vehicles at the centre of many incidents.
"The problem of crime in this country, and in this province, is that the motor vehicle is the common denominator. Either they are going to escape with it, or the number plate is fraudulent, or that car was kidnapped (sic) or hijacked somewhere, or that car cannot be accounted for."
He said that introducing the new number plates with additional technology also made sense, given the fact that the province had run out of new letter and number combinations to assign.
Lesufi formerly introduced the idea of the new plates in his State of the Province address delivered early last year. At the time, very little detail was supplied on what this process would entail.
READ | Gauteng to introduce 'secure and tamper-proof' number plate system to combat crimes such as cloning
In July, Gauteng MEC for Transport and Logistics, Kedibone Diale-Tlabela, launched the registration process for potential manufacturers of the licence plates to come forward. This process ran until the end of September.
Now, Lesufi has said that the project is in a trial phase, with government vehicles in the province having been fitted with the new plates.
Starting from 1 April, he said anyone who renews their licence disc will simultaneously apply for a new number plate.
"We don’t want people to crowd our licensing offices, so every time your disc expires you automatically also have to renew with a number plate. That’s the only way we can make sure everyone comes in."
He said it would also be possible for a person to get a new number plate without renewing their licence disc, but the reverse would not apply - all residents would be legally required to make the change when they renew their licence discs.
He said any vehicle form another province that remained in the province for longer than 30 days would be legally required to make the change to the new number plate system.
In addition to the ability to detect when the licence plate has crossed the border, Lesufi said the new plates would also be tamper-proof. It will not be possible to remove the plates, which will be fitted with a QR code linked to the owner of the vehicle that can be scanned by law enforcement officials.
