The Gauteng Provincial Government has unveiled its new smart number plate solution – but it will only roll out to the public in six months time.
According to the Gauteng Province Department of Roads and Transport, the new number plates will be tested in a six-month pilot project on its g-Fleet Management vehicles, before being rolled out to the rest of the province.
These new numberplates are described by the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport as secure, traceable, and smart.
They use technologies like forensic QR codes, tamper-evident decals, and a fully digitised back-end portal in an attempt to tackle criminal activities – such as vehicle theft, fraud, and cloning.
Through these technologies, the department said it aims to streamline traffic law-enforcement while also improving road safety in the province.
“The system is expected to strengthen the vehicle registration and law enforcement landscape, eradicating the use of cloned or fraudulent number plates, and facilitate interoperability with Southern African Development Community (SADC) systems, amongst others,” said the department in a statement.
According to a post by the Gauteng Provincial Government on X, the plate design will feature the South African national flag, the country’s name, and its United Nations country code (ZA).
A long time coming
The plan to introduce new plates in the province was announced in 2023, and these plates were meant to launch by the end of that year.
However, the launch of these plates has repeatedly been delayed.
First, the updated public unveiling was scheduled for April 2024, but this deadline passed without an announcement.
Later, in November 2024, it was announced that provincial government vehicles had been granted an exemption from complying with the provisions of the existing number plate policies.
This allowed these vehicles to be equipped with the new plates, enabling a limited pilot phase to be run.
The pilot phase was meant to end on 31 March 2025, and the plates would shortly be introduced to the public – but the government again went quiet for months following this deadline.
It is unclear whether the new six-month pilot project announced today is an additional pilot phase to the one that was meant to begin in November 2024, or if that phase is only beginning now.
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