• Gauteng is set to rollout new vehicle license plates as of 1st April 2024.
• The new plates will feature a QR Code, will be tamper-proof and will be trackable between borders, according to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
• In 2016, Arrive Alive and the Department of Transport revealed a new look for nationwide license plates that fit Lesufi’s description. These were set to be rolled out “in the near future.”

From the 1st of April 2024, motorists in Gauteng must begin applying for new license plates as the province is set for a major revamp of its vehicle registration system.

According to Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi, the new plates will be tamper-proof, will feature QR codes that link to the owner of the vehicle and can be scanned by law enforcement, and the new plates can apparently be detected when they cross into or out of provincial borders.

Lesufi described the new license plates at a launch event where the Gauteng provincial government signed an agreement with surveillance firm Vumacam for access to the private company’s network of CCTV cameras – nearly 7 000 around the province and beyond. He did not mention how exactly the new plates will be tracked between borders at the event.

A mockup of what the license plates could look like emerged on X, the former Twitter, from local car blogger Otsile K. These plates feature the QR code mentioned by Lesufi.

The mockup of the plates shared by Otsile has been circulating since 2016. They were revealed by Arrive Alive and then confirmed for authenticity by the Department of Transport (DOT) the same month of the reveal in a statement to Freight News. These plates were said to be renewable after every five years, and would be adopted nationwide “in the coming years.”

DOT at the time said it was still collaborating on proposed designs for the new plates that would be applicable in all provinces.

“The operability of the current South African number plate is prone to abuse by unregistered number plate manufacturers. Equally, the system in its current form is also taken advantage of by criminals who clone vehicles and commit other forms of crime,” the DOT told Freight News.

Like KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng has also run out of registration numbers and letter combinations for new plates, which necessitates the adoption of the new system. Lesufi said that starting 1st April 2024, any driver who applies to renew their license disc will also automatically 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,” the premier said.

There is no official confirmation that the exact design of the mockups from 2016 will be used by Gauteng for its new vehicle license plates, but given that the DOT said that the 2016 designs would be rolled out across the country soon, there is a strong likelihood the new Gauteng plates will be similar.

News24 reports, as per Lesufi, that currently only government vehicles in the province have been fitted with the new plates as part of a trial period before the wider April rollout.

[Image – @OtsileKJ on X]