MASERU - The government through the Ministry of Public Transport has suspended the issuance of new vehicle registration number plates with immediate effect barely after two weeks of launching them.

This happened after the minister in charge, Tšoeu Mokeretla, noticed that they have erroneously issued the number plates without a hologram. A hologram is a photograph of an interference pattern which, when suitably illuminated, produces a three-dimensional image.

It has to show features such as the names and location of the owner of the car. Mokeretla said the hologram is one of the security features that the car has to bear. He said the ministry has to fork out between M4 and 5 million to bring in the hologram.

He said the hologram has to be attached so that Lesotho’s car registration numbers are harmonized with those of other regional and international communities. The minister however said the problem was with them, as the ministry, not the contractor who has been awarded the tender.

For those who have already been given the new number plates, Mokeretla said they will be recalled once they have addressed the problem while the registration process will still be going on so that there is no backlog.

He was hopeful that they would be done by September as the work on the new number plates only started this month. “The law requires to have the hologram as a package of the number plate,” Mokeretla said.  Meanwhile, taxi operators have dragged an issue of hiked prices for the number plates to the courts. They argue that the new price is unreasonable. The price ballooned from M60 to M400.