New Design For South African Number Plates

Problems with number plates cloning is becoming a world-wide problem as the city of Nelspruit in north eastern South Africa plans to redesign plates in the hope of preventing number plates forgery.

Although citizens of Nelspruit will be asked to comment on the proposed changes, the Roads and Transport MEC, Jackson Mthembu, seemed certain last week that changes would definitely go ahead, announcing that the department will soon begin consultations to discuss the redesign of plates.

Mthembu said, "The current style number plates are easy to clone and that makes it difficult to control embossers".

He went on to say that the new plates will be colour-coded, depending on the category of motor vehicle. He said, "Government vehicle plates will be differently colour-coded from private number plates and public transport vehicles".

The new car registrations will also have self-destruct features for when they are forcefully removed. It is hoped that this will help to reduce number plates thefts.

Numerous areas of the UK have also adopted anti-tamper number plates. Due to the credit crunch presently hitting the UK, fuel prices have soared and, as a result, number plates thefts have increased considerably. Police are currently offering one-way safety screws in various areas of the UK and are hoping that motorists will take advantage of this in order to reduce crime.

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