Here is an example of the dealer plate for the South African province of Mpumalanga, characterised by the letter ‘A’ starting the trio of registration letters, and of course the MP suffix of the province.
So when I was cruising the streets of Knysna (ZA) today, and saw a BMW parked, registered ACE 668 MP, I stopped the scooter and went back to photograph it, as MP dealer is quite unusual.
Well, it caught me out! Perhaps you other members were quicker to recognise my mistake?
Who will be first to explain by commenting below?
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Did you know that South Africa doesn’t issue plates with any vowels – because without vowels, no vulgar words can be formed – which saves the authorities the headache of contemplating possible word meanings in many African and other languages.
One day, when they see how much money they can make from adding vowels, and then being able to sell stupid letter combinations to vain citizens, I expect they will change their minds! Even Sweden succumbed to the demon vanity plate industry, a country I always assumed was too ‘straight’ to do such a thing. Germany and France still proudly sidestep the temptation to mine this income source – bravo!
Germany does have a – mitigated – vanity plate system. Dutch friends of mine were able to secure plates with the letters NL in the middle, followed by their birth year.
It’s Mozambique, with MP = Maputo. A problem with using the same font and style as the neighbouring country.
Almost, Paul. MP in this case codes Maputo PROVINCE. MC would be Maputo City, plus there are the other codes for elsewhere. But how right you are when you note that the two countries actually border each other, so confusion is going to exist for the local coppers near the national border! VB
The Mozambique crest on the plate is a dead giveaway, but at a quick glance in South Africa you can be forgiven for thinking it was a Mpumalanga plate. John. Eu3