Avoiding e-tolls with foreign number plates

Zukat

Zukat

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Heard on the radio this morning, one of the Sanral's representatives was answering listeners questions and one of them was with regards to collection of fees from cars with foreign number plates (Mozambique, Lesotho etc.) to which his answer was "we will ensure control at the border blabla" (never will be controlled).

This got me thinking of registering/buying a car in one of the neighboring countries, so wanted to get some insight with regards to this idea? Is it legal to drive here permanently? What might be the difficulties I will face?
I do know about exiting the country once a year for licensing, but that doesn't seem like a train smash.
 
Your biggest problem will not be licensing, it will be customs and import duty. You cannot import secondhand vehicles into South Africa without having owned the car overseas for more than 12 months. You also cannot temporarily import a foreign-registered car for longer than 3 months. If you are a South African passport holder trying to temporarily import a foreign-registered car from say Botswana or Mozambique, you can expect to be given a hard time at the border when trying to bring the car into South Africa.
 
The Namibian police over here give the South African expats that work on our mine a lot of hassles if theyvare driving SA registered vehicles. Last year they went from door to door, there was some sort of law that the car could only be here for a few months....not too sure how long though..... Then when our Namibians go to study in SA , a lot of our students were also thretened at the border by SA officials about their vehicles being in SA for so long......

This story was on News24 towards the end of last year...

Now when I was a reckless youth roaming the streets of CPT. A few decades ago, I had a Namibian registered car... I had Carte Blanche and amasssed a ton of parking and speeding fines, in fact the footwell of the passenger side of the car at one stage about forty odd tickets..... I never paid a cent, parked wherever I liked and the authorities kept sending all kinds of official threats to a PO box in Whk that I no longer used....

For years a lot of my mates from Nam would not worry about SA speed camera's , however since computers and network arrived at the border posts , that all changed...

Oh! And on a side note.... The officials at the border onboth sides become very suspicious if you are driving a vehicle from anther country...
 
Don't forget that if you drive a foreign-registered car and you rack up lots of fines, eventually you will go through a roadblock in South Africa and your car's registration number will come up if they do a check and you will be busted and either be arrested or expected to pay your fines on the spot.
 
deweyzeph said:
Don't forget that if you drive a foreign-registered car and you rack up lots of fines, eventually you will go through a roadblock in South Africa and your car's registration number will come up if they do a check and you will be busted and either be arrested or expected to pay your fines on the spot.
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If you are still driving the same car and registration... I even have a new ID and passport number from those cloudy days!

Once I drove all the way to CPT to drop two people off at the airport for a flight... had the weekend to spare, left the airport went to a mates place in Newlands... whilst trying to park, crashed into somebody's car.... in a youthful moment of panic, realised that when the cops rocked up, I would go straight to jail, due to all my uncollected fines.... so I jumped into the car and drove straight back to Nam through the night.... so in essence, I drove all the way down to Cape Town to drop two people off and drove all the way back...... what a waste of a weekend.... the joys of being a youth!
 
Mortymoose said:
If you are still driving the same car and registration... I even have a new ID and passport number from those cloudy days!

Once I drove all the way to CPT to drop two people off at the airport for a flight... had the weekend to spare, left the airport went to a mates place in Newlands... whilst trying to park, crashed into somebody's car.... in a youthful moment of panic, realised that when the cops rocked up, I would go straight to jail, due to all my uncollected fines.... so I jumped into the car and drove straight back to Nam through the night.... so in essence, I drove all the way down to Cape Town to drop two people off and drove all the way back...... what a waste of a weekend.... the joys of being a youth!
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Finally I have tracked you down!!!!
 
What you really need is a digital display numberplate that automatically blanks out when you go under a gantry. The guy that invents that will make a lot of money in Joburg.
 
deweyzeph said:
What you really need is a digital display numberplate that automatically blanks out when you go under a gantry. The guy that invents that will make a lot of money in Joburg.
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You already get a numberplate flip type mechanism. CIA style! Cost $300 tho, eish!
 
deweyzeph said:
What you really need is a digital display numberplate that automatically blanks out when you go under a gantry. The guy that invents that will make a lot of money in Joburg.
Click to expand...

And quickly thrown in jail..
 
Here we go:

http://speedflip.com/

Speedflip is the premier Flip Down License Plate on the market today. Find out what thousands of other car enthusiasts already know – how to HIDE YOUR PLATE any time, any place!
Speedflip is a simple device that modifies your vehicle to give it a secret agent feel by allowing the driver to flip the vehicle’s plate with one simple button press. A second press re-flips the plate back to its original position within (0.09 seconds ). A single remote key fob or switch operated can even activate both front and rear plates with one press! We also have a switch operated version for Motor cycles or car! It's also world wide universal so it fits any size licence plate, and any vehicle. Every Speedflip comes with a full 12 month warranty.
Click to expand...
 
Tman* said:
The design looks a bit flimsy, I would much go with a solid design like this: http://plate-flipper.com/
Click to expand...

Yip, that one looks much better! I like the way you can flip between 2 different plates. I wonder how many people in South Africa actually have devices like this installed in their cars. I bet you quite a few. Our law enforcement officers are so thick they wouldn't even check for this kind of thing if you get stopped.
 
deweyzeph said:
Yip, that one looks much better! I like the way you can flip between 2 different plates. I wonder how many people in South Africa actually have devices like this installed in their cars. I bet you quite a few. Our law enforcement officers are so thick they wouldn't even check for this kind of thing if you get stopped.
Click to expand...

Also think there are quite a few people with mechanisms like these. I'm seriously considering to buy one - for all of those car shows I attend ;)
 
You could always have a different "fake" number plate on the back and just reverse through the e toll.
 
Hmm this topic really took a different direction since the start, but on that note there is also a curtain option, which is much cheaper than the flip plate.
I actually wanted to find a legal way to avoid it. Also it depends if the customs/border control puts your car details into the police database, where the cameras can recognize it when you make an offence and link it to your address abroad? also how would they check if I exited the country every 3 months?
 
A few months ago we were in the Kalahari and we lost the front plate on the Prado. When I went to go get a replacement I was not asked for any documentation, they just printed the numbers I gave them. What if I was driving around with a plate which had one incorrect number and get pulled over? Sorry ocifer, they must have printed it incorrectly :o)

Small fine and sorted? No? ;o)
 
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