Claire Bezuidenhout
Summers are extremely humid in Durban. In order to keep their cool, the masses cruise to the beachfront to hang out at the trendy open-air bars on North Beach or the magnetic mainstay of the Blue Lagoon. Girls waltz the promenades in hipster hot pants, low-cut Mae West blouses and platform shoes. The boys just cruise, like all good Durban boys do. Except for one guy.
He had a lot more pizzazz than your average city slicker. Apart from the upbeat old Chevy convertible, pumping the 1950s rock’n’roll, this ageing Elvis cruised the inner urban enterprise with a number plate proudly stating, UPYURS – ZN.
Intrigued by this honest, unadulterated piece of provincial, social commentary, I leapt from my bench to interrogate such an exemplary citizen. But alas, before I could harass or document him, his automatic had driven off into the proverbial sunset.
A trip to the Blue Lagoon was, surprisingly, not that different to the hip confines of the former, southern brotherhood. The first thing to catch one’s attention here was the roar of spanking new BMWs, all sporting arrogant number plates. There was WILD1 – ZN in Cerrutti suit, Armani sunglasses, with a Nokia and a chick in the passenger seat. Meanwhile, 12BME – ZN, casually cruised the parking lot, Diesel-ed up, fag in one hand, woman in the other.
However, personalised number plates, Durban’s rapidly growing phenomenon, is no longer restricted to the beachfront. The city’s roads are full of this creative scheme – in which drivers use their cars as self-reflective status symbols, or merely to inform the public of the type of business they provide.
KwaZulu-Natal is currently one of two provinces in the country licensing personalised number plates, the other being the Western Cape. The initiative was conceived back in 1996 after representatives from the nine provinces arrived back from Australia with a novel approach to raising much-needed money for long-term provincial activities. The province, which had recently updated their licensing and registration systems from the manual method to an advanced computer software system known as a National Traffic Info System, identified the concept as a potentially lucrative revenue endeavour. They ferociously set about implementing the system, which has earned an additional R7-million since its inception in 1997. Money procured is dedicated to funds for building rural access roads and bridges in KwaZulu-Natal.
Working with a staff of four, the Pietermaritzburg Motor Licensing Bureau (PMLB) has been inundated with queries from a mixed group of potential personal licence plate holders. “We have, so far, received a fairly balanced response from all racial and gender fractions from the business and community sectors. However, we are placing restrictions on the nature of the message or logo,” explains Nisha Maikoo, senior administrative officer of the PMLB.
Before obtaining your personalised number plate, an adjudication takes place, determining if things like 4Q2 – NZ or PORNO1 – NZ are suitable for our well- maintained, conservative highways. “This is to ensure that the plates are not offensive to the public. We have received requests for GOD1 – ZN and JESUS1 – ZN, but we have decided not to condone any blasphemy, for obvious road etiquette and respect,” Maikoo assures.
However, the motor plate inroads are fuelled with originality, NKHOSI – ZN, ZAXAXA – ZN, SHARKS – ZN, WICKED – ZN, CHASME – ZN and 4EVA18 – ZN, and the money spent is for a good cause, so hey, YNOT – ZN? All this, at a provincial price-booster of between R1 500 and R2 400.