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The Gauteng Department of Transport, in response to AfriForum’s application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), indicated that they are unable to provide any indication of what the province’s proposed new number plates will cost consumers. According to AfriForum this is disappointing and the organisation will now place further pressure on the authorities to postpone the entire project until there is more clarity thereof.

AfriForum submitted a PAIA application in June, after a pilot project for new number plates was launched, in which the new plates were fitted to the Gauteng government’s fleet vehicles. AfriForum requested, among other things, what the intended cost and associated re-registration costs of these number plates would be; how long vehicle owners would have to switch to the new number plates; and what research the decision to require number plates with additional safety features was based on. The Department provided a lengthy response after three months, but it did not contain any indication of estimated costs for vehicle owners or a timeline for implementation.

The pilot project is supposed to last six months, whereafter the new number plates should be extended to the rest of the vehicles in the province. With less than two months left, vehicle owners still have no idea what it will cost them and how much time they will be given for it.

According to Louis Boshoff, Campaign Officer at AfriForum, this project will affect millions of Gauteng residents and it is unacceptable that everyone is kept in the dark about basic information such as the cost and timeline. “It is clear that the government is blind to the economic challenges that Gauteng residents face if they want to change the entire number plate system without even estimating what it will cost the consumer.”

Although the Department of Transport has shared statistics on vehicle hijackings and thefts, there is no research that shows that this crime is due to poor number plate quality. “The problem is not so much that new number plates are being proposed – the problem is that the provincial government cannot properly motivate it, does not know what it will cost motorists and has not properly planned how long it will take to phase in,” concludes Boshoff.

Issued by AfriForum