Housing in Southern Africa February 2015

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February 2015
ED’S NOTES
AVERAGE CIRCULATION
(THIRD QUARTER 2014)
3760
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H OUSI NG
in Southern Africa
EDITOR
Carol Dalglish
ADVERTISING
Brenda Grossmann
BOARD MEMBER
Jenny Warwick
PUBLISHER
Karen Grant
DESIGN
Colin Mazibuko
CIRCULATION
Karen Smith
READER ENQUIRIES
Radha Naidoo
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Wendy Charles
Govan Mbeki Awards 2014 - Best Media - Housing in Southern Africa
Carol Dalglish • Editor
Those who want to remain dis-
creet or non-descript go with
the generic ones allocated by
the licensing departments. But some
that recently caught my attention
included a top of the range Land
Rover adorned, Shweet; a red Toyota
twin cab named, 4Fortuna, a German
performance car that carved its way
through the traffic aptly named Snap-
py; and who could resist the Toyota
Combi with a heavenly number plate
extolling, 025DEC.
Spotted on the Soweto Highway
was a small red 4X4 with the reg-
istration plate emblazoned Bantu,
one wonders if the surname was
Holomisa?
In Durban a smart black top of the
range car carried the name of a great
Indian saint, Babaji; the spiritual
sound of Aum, resonated on a sleek
German model.
A flashy silver Mercedes sported,
Slumdog; and road users moved out
of the way for a Mercedes Benz 180
inscribed 001 FUZ, one can only as-
sume it is a top cop’s private vehicle.
A dark blue BMW displayed Ultra
4; and watching Joybug zooming
around Joburg made me smile. Sue
NW probably encapsulated how
people feel about the North West
province and it has nothing to dowith
the driver.
Some licence plates make the
owner easily identifiable such as a
white Mercedes Benz 250 embla-
zoned Mpho L or Audrey. With a plate
extolling Blitz1, other drivers gave
the car’s driver room to manoeuvre;
one motorist clearly has a hankering
for Los Angeles and sported LAJBUG.
This plate i 8 A VW on a red Audi
tickled my funny bone. But, my
personal favourite was a Rolls Royce
entitled, 03 Oddy. The whimsical
number plate seemed farmore suited
to a backyard special than a plush
state-of-the-art luxury brand.
Would President Jacob Zuma opt
for Number One.ZA; African minerals
billionaire Patrice Motsepe display
The Boss; or his wife Precious chose
GP, an abbreviation for her profes-
sional status.
Human Settlements Minister,
Car spotting…
Personalised number plates often speak volumes about who is in the
driving seat, their demeanour, social pecking order, sense of humour,
spiritual calling, passion, driving style or other idiosyncrasies.
Lindiwe Sisulu could proclaim, 1,5m
houses; the Oppenheimers’, de
beers1.
Would theMinister of Justice bold-
ly extoll, Justice4all; or professionals
such as a plastic surgeon, New U; or
a dietician, Fat Buster; or an equity
funder select Triple AAA.
Affordable housing developer,
Cosmopolitan Projects brand all
their vehicles with splashes of animal
print, and like the big five, they are
easily recognisable and distinguish-
able from a distance.
What about government’s money
man, would Samson Moraba, from
the National Housing Finance Corpo-
ration, opt for DFi1
It is really tempting to come up
with a sweet number plate but with
my taxi driving style, I guess that
being anonymous is far better.
Enjoy the read!