THESE NUMBER PLATES HAVE EXPIRED

MBABANE – Thousands of motorists who acquired their vehicle number plates in 2010 will have to replace them with new ones as they expire in 2015.
The cheapest set of two registration plates goes for about E290.

In the year 2011, at least 153 013 vehicles had been registered in Swaziland according to the Global Health Observatory data compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
In June last year, the Road Transportation Department (RTD) revealed to the Times SUNDAY that in total, close to 400 000 cars had been registered in the kingdom. Owners of personalised number plates that have the expiry date as 2015 will also be affected.

In 2010, Swaziland replaced its old number plate system with the current ones which contain more information and valid for five years.
The change was done so that Swazi motorists complied with those in countries belonging to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).
The current registration plates bear three letters, a space, three numbers, another space, and then two letters such as ‘LSV 000 AL’.

The last letter represents the first letter of the region in which the vehicle was registered.
In the given number plate, the ‘L’ represents Lubombo, while ‘M,’ ‘S’ and ‘H’ would represent Manzini, Shiselweni and Hhohho regions, respectively.
Vehicles owned by the government have the letter ‘G’ at the end, meaning ‘Government.’ The expiry date is displayed near the top right corner of the number plate.

A number plate acquired in 2010 is expected to have an expiry date of 2015 while one obtained in 2013 shall become invalid after 2018.
This means that a number plate generated this year will have an expiry date of 2020.

At the time the upgrade exercise was conducted, drivers were required to have their vehicles checked at their nearest police stations and some motorists had to travel to less busy areas to avoid long queues.
Reporters from the Times SUNDAY spoke to motorists whose vehicles were registered in 2010 and have registration plates marked 2015.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: