New provincial licence mark for motor vehicles and vehicle licence fee increase

The Provincial Minister of Transport and Public Works, Bonginkosi Madikizela, will on Friday 15 November 2019 publish, in the Provincial Gazette, a Notice calling for public comments on the allocation of a new provincial licence mark to all the registering authorities of the Western Cape.

This move is a pre-emptive one, driven by the rate at which the current “CAA” and “CAW” licence numbers are fast approaching the 100 000 mark, both events expected to happen within the next month.  Other practical reasons for considering a provincial licence mark as opposed to adding more local marks to the existing ones are:

• A municipality having multiple licence marks allocated to its registering authorities, e.g. the City of Cape Town with the CA, CAA, CEY, CF, CFM, CFR and CY licence marks.  This situation sometimes leads to the manipulation of address information on NaTIS where a vehicle owner favours a particular licence mark of another area over his / her local licence mark.
• More than one municipality shares the same licence mark, e.g. the municipalities of Theewaterskloof and Overstrand share the CAM licence mark.
• The current municipal areas do not in all respects align with the areas of the then Department of Inland Revenue through which licence marks were originally established and allocated.  This situation leads to a vehicle being allocated with a licence number that contains a licence mark (as programmed on NaTIS) at a registering authority that is not part of the local municipality of the vehicle owner – a situation where revenue (through vehicle licence fees) is then not paid to the correct municipality.

When the CAW licence mark reaches 100 000 licence numbers it will be replaced by the new licence mark CAG as published in Provincial Gazette 7884, on 26 February 2018.  This is an interim arrangement until such time that a new provincial licence mark is in place to cover all the areas of the province.

The CAA licence mark will, however, be allowed to exceed 100 000, in the interim, as the higher than expected demand for CAA licence numbers will not allow for a new local licence mark to be published in time.  This means that such a licence number will therefore consist of a combination of 9 characters.   However, the Department would like to advise the public, traffic law enforcement authorities, as well as certified number plate manufacturers that 1 of the 5 sizes of number plates that are legally allowed on vehicles registered before 01 January 2010 will not comply with the SABS standards (SANS code) if a 9-character licence number is used.  Therefore, instead of the 440mm x 120mm size number plate, the 520mm x 113mm size must be used as this will enable motorists to still comply with the law. As at 12 November 2019, 81964 CAA numbers have been allocated since its introduction on 13 April 2019. 

Any person or organisation wishing to comment on the content of the Notice will be requested to lodge the comments in writing before or on 13 December 2019 by submitting comments to and in the manner stipulated in the Notice as published in the Provincial Gazette.

On the same day, the Provincial Minister of Transport and Public Works will publish, in the Provincial Gazette, a Notice calling for public comments on the increase of vehicle licence fees. The average increase proposed is approximately 4.5%. This is in line with inflation. Licence fees are, among other activities, predominantly used for maintenance and building of the road infrastructure.

Any person or organisation wishing to comment on the content of the Notice will be requested to lodge the comments in writing before or on 13 December 2019 by submitting comments to and in the manner stipulated in the Notice as published in the Provincial Gazette.

The Department deemed it fit to upload answers to frequently asked questions on its website (www.westerncape.gov.za/tpw) which can be accessed by next week Thursday.

How to submit comments:

• By post: Shaldon le Roux, Assistant Director: Traffic Legislative Matters, PO Box 2603, Cape Town, 8000,
• By email: Shaldon.LeRoux@westerncape.gov.za, or
• By Fax: 021 483 2357

Read more:

• Draft Registration and Licence Fees for Motor Vehicle Regulations, 2020
• Intention to Determine Licence Mark and Establish Licence Number System for Province