A fine motor museum outside Franschoek, Western Cape, reveals a few early plates which are now little seen. http://www.fmm.co.za
OB-914, Orange Free State – Bloemfontein, circa 1910 at Franschoek. This car is a Lorraine-Dietrich. Brumby archive
Below: Next, BDP 795 EC, a former series Eastern Cape plate re-registering a 1920s Ford model ‘A’, using the new EC-suffixed series, but on a plain yellow ground. Soon replaced by the multicoloured background of the current type. A handful of these are still to be seen in use.
- BDP 795 EC interim plate design for Eastern Cape Province. These plain plates were issued from 1996 to Oct 1998. Brumby archive
Below: NO 85 from Kwazulu-Natal (then simply Natal) coded NO to Melmoth, a small place half-way between Durban and Swaziland.
- NO 85 on a Natal motorcycle. NO is from Mtonjaneni-Melmoth
Below CC 22 FL GP – examples of the new layout of the Gauteng (formerly Transvaal) plates, showing the square version and the long.
In 2011, starting with BB 00 AA, Gauteng had exhausted its 3-letter 3-number series and changed to LL NN LL. Rear size example.
Below: GDF 116 G – Here is a central government series, always plain. background. 
- Dept. of Transport national issue. GG codes ‘Government Garage’. Seen 16-1-2013, Somerset West, Cape.
and finally an archive shot from John Pemberton’s album – Natal/Durban no. 20 during the 1940s in Oxford, UK., bearing a big Royal Automobile Club oval. (What make/model this American car?)
Unknown 1940s American car from Durban. ND 20 Oct. 2014 – Now identified by Andre as a 1946-8 Chrysler!
Until 1981, South African Govt. departments were allocated plates from the ‘ Government Garage’. Here is a Ford Cortina Mk 3 estate car in Grahamstown in those days. Brumby archive
DIP 123 D is of the diplomatic style of the 1970s.
ND 20 is a 1946 – 1948 Chrysler.