KwaZulu-Natal will officially have new vehicle license number plates. The programme has been launched by the province’s Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube in Pinetown, west of Durban. KwaZulu-Natal alongside the Western Cape were the only provinces with a numbering system. Under the new format the Department of Transport in the province will print just over 15 million license numbers for the next 70 years.
KwaZulu-Natal is joining the rest of the country in the license numbering system. Government says the change is due to the outdated current system, also over-burdened by registering over 500 000 cars per annum which forced some towns to overhaul their license plates for new ones.
The province will align with the national format which gives provinces their unique security features.
The implementation will be rolled out in phases and also giving motorists two years to migrate. Starting on the 1st of December 2023 with the registration of new vehicles, change of ownership and government vehicles. The second phase will commence in March next year with the voluntary migration of all vehicle owners.
“We have run out of numbers in KwaZulu-Natal. We have been the only province and the Western Cape at some stage that had not complied with the national laws that regulate that holders of number plates that are registered must be identified as to where those cars are registered for, also have a unique registration figure and a unique security feature that determines who does that car belongs to,” says Dube-Ncube.
Motorists will have to pay out of their own pockets for the migration to the new system.
“Those who might think that they don’t want to change now because they have renewed their license now we are still giving them 21 months to change. That means they can change after a year which will give them an opportunity to fundraise whatever monies that may be needed to change to a new system,” says KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC Sipho Hlomuka.
There are mixed reactions from some of the motorists in the province to the move. All new registration numbers issued in KwaZulu-Natal including personalized ones will depict ZN.
Video: New licence plates for province of KwaZulu-Natal
