540 000 vehicles of the total 13 million official vehicles in South Africa with foreign plates have been identified in the country over the past five years, according to the Vehicle Data System (VIDS).
The VIDS system is actually meant to be tracking stolen vehicles and vehicles being hijacked for illegal activities. The system captures the vehicles with GPS coordinates, date and time stamps as well as with an image of the vehicle. This also allows it to identify fraudulent duplicated registration plates.
Director of the National Automobile Dealers’ Association, Gary McCraw, mentioned that some 214 000 vehicles which entered the country over 12 months ago have not gone back to the country of registration, and that 220 000 cars in South Africa never reached the country for which they were intended, with more than 50 000 illegal cars joining the register annually.
Poor controls at the borders have enabled the illegal importation of used vehicles. McCraw believes the country now loses billions in revenue, but could recoup the money with stricter controls.