GEORGE NEWS - CAW car number plates will soon be reaching the limit of 99 999 and the introduction of an additional registration for George, CAG, is expected to be implemented in the next few months.
Steven Erasmus, George Municipality director of Protection Services, said the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works has published a notice in the Provincial Gazette informing the authorities of the addition of CAG for George.
"The rapid population growth in recent years has meant more vehicles were being registered in George than numbers going back into the pool, which led to the need for a new licence mark," said Erasmus.
"The addition of the CAG number plate in town will mean that the difficult-to-read six digit numbers will not be used. CAG will not replace CAW. The system will automatically allocate CAG numbers when CAW numbers are no longer available. The exact time for when CAG number plates will be implemented has not yet been decided on."
Any person or organisation wishing to comment on the content of this notice is requested to lodge the comments in writing on or before 5 February.
Post the comments to: Mr MJ Gallant, PO Box 2603, Cape Town, 8000 / e-mail to: Michael.Gallant@westerncape.gov.za / fax to 021 483 7103 or deliver the comments to Mr MJ Gallant, Room 2–23, 2nd Floor, 9 Dorp Street, Cape Town.
The CAW registration is widely seen as an acronym for Cold And Wet or Cozy And Warm.
We asked a few residents their opinions about the number plates. Click here for the photos.
ARTICLE: BRüMILDA SWARTBOOI, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
Vehicle number plates tell a story
(By Myron Rabinowitz)
The alphabetic prefixes on vehicle number plates in the Western Cape tell a story or maybe that should be a history lesson.
At the beginning of the 1900's laws were passed to regulate motorised vehicles, which were flooding into cities and towns across the world. This new form of transport proved to be a hit amongst the well-healed gentry at the time.
The Union Government introduced number plates and the towns in the Cape Province, at the time the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape, were originally assigned prefixes starting from "A"for the largest followed by "B", "C" all the way to "Z" in descending size. Thus "CA" represented the largest city, Cape Town, "CB" the second largest, Port Elizabeth and Kimberley with its flourishing diamond industry the third largest town was allocated "CC".
George’s registration of "CAW" was an indication of the size of the town at the time. Oudtshoorn, "CG", with its thriving ostrich feather industry at its peak was the seventh largest town in the Cape Province. Ironically the introduction of the motor car led to the demise of ostrich feathers as a fashion accessory as the ladies large brimmed hats would blow-off when the car started driving faster than a horse and carriage.
In the 1980's the province of Transvaal implemented a centralized vehicle registration system using three alphabet letters followed by three numerical numbers and a "T" on a yellow number plate with black embossed lettering. At the time of the democratic dispensation in 1994 this numbering system for the Transvaal was rapidly running out of permutations. Fortunately in 1994 the four provinces were dissolved and nine new provinces were introduced. All the new provinces excluding Western Cape and Kwazulu Natal adopted the alphanumeric system. Due to public demand at the time, different text colour on white background was also allowed. The different provinces could decide on text colour for their plates. A white background is used in all provinces although some provinces place graphics on this background relevant to their province.
In 2012 Gauteng Province (GP) was once again running out of permutations and had to adopt a new system. This system used two letters, two numbers, two letters and the Province Indicator of GP.
Read a related article: Van CAW tot CAG op nommer 99 999
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