As of last weekend, all new Cape Town-registered licence number plates will begin with the letters CAA instead of the usual CA, and CA license plates will no longer be issued.

These changes are being introduced to prevent existing licence plates from being duplicated, as licensing authorities are running out of possible alphanumeric combinations.

According to Arrive Alive, vehicle owners who currently have a CA licence number will be able to transfer the number to another vehicle they own, or any vehicle in their name.

“At the moment that available CA combinations run out, the system will not permit new licence numbers to be issued for the rest of that day,” Arrive Alive says. “Anyone waiting for a new licence mark will have to wait until the next business day for a CAA number to be issued. This disruption is unavoidable for technical reasons, and members of the public are requested to be patient with registering authorities on the day of the changeover.”

As is customary, the first 9999 CAA numbers will be reserved as special licence numbers. With an ordinary application, the system will automatically issue a number starting from CAA10000 at no additional cost.

Applications for special licence numbers will be processed at the applicable rate for certain combinations of numbers and letters.

These are the new license plate fees (Source: Department of Public Works)

Picture: Pixabay

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Lucinda is a hard news writer who occasionally dabbles in lifestyle writing, and recent journalism graduate. She is a proud intersectional feminist, and is passionate about actively creating a world which is free of discrimination and inequality.