Crime fighters not happy with move to provincial numbers
Durban - Crime fighters are not happy about the planned move to new number plates for KZN that no longer indicate where in the province a vehicle comes from.
KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube announced the move on Wednesday after the province’s executive council received a presentation from the transport department on the number plate system because of the exhaustion of the older system using the NRB, NPN and NPS prefixes.
“Motorists will be given two years to migrate from the current number plate system to a new numbering system which will depict the province as ‘ZN’,” Dube-Ncube said.
“The executive council supported the changes, but emphasised that this process must not have an unnecessary financial burden on motorists and must consider the participation of the local manufacturers in the value chain.”
The executive has instructed KZN MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison Sipho Hlomuka to fast-track the public consultations through the issuing of government gazettes.
“Government will also embark on aggressive communication to inform motorists about these changes and the benefits thereof, which among others will assist in the fight against crime and create a common sense of identity for the province,” Dube-Ncube said.
But community forums and other crime watchdogs said licensing was in such disarray that their attempts to trace cars through their number plates were already hampered by corruption or inertia. There were also too many cloned plates.
“I would rather they stay,” said Durban North-uMhlanga Community Policing Forum (CPF) chairperson Hayden Searles. “But, in the same breath, what’s the point?”
He said many licensing offices could not give details of cars because of corruption or inertia, or both, at these workplaces.
Private investigator Brad Nathanson confirmed that many cars were not registered on the eNatis system.
“So often you send off a check request and there’s no record of a car,” he said.
Samantha Shallcross of the Kloof CPF said it was useful having number plates that indicated where a car might be from.
“When a car registered in another town is seen in another suburb, it often raised a red flag. For example, we can see if a car comes far away from home and is behaving out of the ordinary and it makes it easier for us, from a security perspective.”
Justin Bosse from the Pinetown CPF foresaw a logistical nightmare at licensing offices.
Provincial transport spokesperson Kwanele Ncalane said it would help potential victims of crime from wealthier places if they could not be identified by their area while travelling in high crime areas.
“Also, we want to create an identity for the province, which is drawn by apartheid spatial planning. Number plates often represent demarcations that no longer exist.”
He said the idea would be that people would receive their new number plates, comprising a string of numbers and then “ZN”, when they did their annual re-registering and that the only cost involved would be for the new plate.
“And that’s around R250.”
Ncalane added that the proposal came at a time when there was no longer space for numbers for new cars that had to be registered in places with three letters on the plate, such as NPN for Pinetown or NPS for Port Shepstone.
“We are having a situation when new cars registered in Pinetown can no longer have NPN plates. They need to have NU plates, which is for New Germany.”
During a roll-out period of two years, all number plates should be transformed, he added.
Ncalane also said the new plates would have special, new security features.
He said the provincial legislature this week gave the green light for the department’s proposal. It would be entered into the Government Gazette shortly and there would be public consultations.
“However, our target date to start it is on December 1,” he added.
He said only KZN and the Western Cape still had number plates identifying cars as being linked to districts.
DA transport spokesperson Sharon Hoosen said that, once again, the Department of Transport and the MEC for Transport wanted to put the cart before the horse.
“It is clear they have taken a decision to implement this change irrespective of what the public say. How can you decide to have a public participation process but have already established a start date of December 1, 2023?“ she asked.
Hoosen said the matter was not tabled at a transport portfolio committee meeting for members to consider or provide input.
“The transport MEC must consider the implications of this decision and rather delay any implementation until proper public participation is completed and considered. Otherwise, he is merely ticking boxes for the sake of process.”
The Independent on Saturday